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Top Down Quotes

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“In any analysis of any part of the world, it is mandatory to institute a general reasoning in which the whole – the Absolute – is also included. This is what science scrupulously avoids. Science is all about the parts, and ignoring the whole. Science is non-holistic, which is why it cannot arrive at a grand unified, final theory of everything. From the whole you can get to every part, because the whole defines the parts. If you start with the parts, as science does, you can never get to the whole because the parts are necessarily defined piecemeal, heuristically and with no regard to the whole, since the whole is unknown. A bottom-up approach can never work. Only top-down approaches have any chance of working. Empiricists are always parts people and bottom-up people. Rationalists are holistic and top-down. These are opposite worldviews. The PSR is an explanatory, top-down principle. Randomness is a non-explanatory, bottom-up speculation.”

ScienceTheoryConsistentRationalismRandomnessCompleteTop DownHolismPsrBottom Up
Book:God Is Mathematics: The Proofs of the Eternal Existence of Mathematics
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“From the point of view of totalitarian ethics, from the point of view of collective utility, Plato’s theory of justice is perfectly correct. To keep one’s place is a virtue. It is that civil virtue which corresponds exactly to the military virtue of discipline. And this virtue plays exactly that rôle which ‘justice’ plays in Plato’s system of virtues. For the cogs in the great clockwork of the state can show ‘virtue’ in two ways. First, they must be fit for their task, by virtue of their size, shape, strength, etc.; and secondly, they must be fitted each into its right place and must retain that place. The first type of virtues, fitness for a specific task, will lead to a differentiation, in accordance with the specific task of the cog. Certain cogs will be virtuous, i.e. fit, only if they are (‘by their nature’) large; others if they are strong; and others if they are smooth. But the virtue of keeping to one’s place will be common to all of them; and it will at the same time be a virtue of the whole: that of being properly fitted together—of being in harmony. To this universal virtue Plato gives the name ‘justice’. This procedure is perfectly consistent and it is fully justified from the point of view of totalitarian morality. If the individual is nothing but a cog, then ethics is nothing but the study of how to fit him into the whole.”

OppressionAlienationTotalitarianismCollectivismOrganizational CultureTop DownAnti IndividualismHierarchical SystemsCog In The MachineState Oppression
Book:The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume One: The Spell of Plato
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“Enforced by genetics, sexual reproduction, perspective, and experience, the most manifest characteristic of human beings is their diversity. The freer an economy is, the more this human diversity of knowledge will be manifested. By contrast, political power originates in top-down processes-governments, monopolies, regulators, and elite institutions- all attempting to quell human diversity and impose order. Thus power always seeks centralization.”

HumansGovernmentPoliticalOrderProcessHuman BeingsEconomyPerspectiveDiversityEconomicsInstitutionsCharacteristicsManifestElitesContrastMonopolyAttemptingGeneticsReproductionPolitical PowerTop DownRegulatorsCentralizationHuman Diversity
Author:George Gilder
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“It is permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter. His fame lasts perhaps two thousand years. And what are two thousand years?... What, indeed, if you look from a mountain top down the long wastes of the ages? The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare.”

IfsThinkingMenYearsLooksLongTwoAgeLastsDiesSpeakDyingHeroThousandFameMountainWasteStonesKicksBootsThousand YearsHereafterTop DownMountain Top
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
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“It has been obvious all along, to anyone paying attention, that the politicians shouting loudest about deficits are actually using deficit hysteria as a cover story for their real agenda, which is top-down class warfare. To put it in Romneyesque terms, it's all about finding an excuse to slash programs that help people who like to watch Nascar events, even while lavishing tax cuts on people who like to own Nascar teams.”

PeopleHas BeensRealHelpingStoriesTermAttentionClassWatchesCuttingTeamEventsPoliticianTaxesFindingsProgramObviousExcusePay AttentionAgendasWarfareDeficitShoutingHysteriaTax CutsClass WarfareTop DownNascar
Author:Paul Krugman
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“The best thing that I can offer to people is just to be honest, and that's a rare quality. In doing so, I think there's always a top down feeling that permeates a working environment. If the boss is cool and he's a certain way that's not bullshitting, then everyone around is going to feel that comfort and try to be that way, as well. That's just who I strive to be, as a person.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayFeelsTryingWellsPersonsI CanFeelingsCertainQualityEnvironmentHonestComfortOffersStriveBeing HonestBest ThingsBossTop Down
Author:Joe Hahn
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“The traditional view of purpose says it comes from on high, from God, from the Creator. Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition. Whereas people used to think of meaning coming from on high and being ordained from the top down, now we have Darwin saying, "No, all of this design can happen, all of this purpose can emerge from the bottom up without any direction at all."”

PeopleThinkingIdeasHappensUsedPurposeNaturalViewsDesignTraditionBottomCreatorTraditionalUncomfortableReverseSelectionSaying NoNatural SelectionThink Of MeTop Down
Author:Daniel Dennett
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“Schools in which students and teachers relate as partners-where Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication is part of every interaction are communities of learning, rather than top-down, impersonal factories. Young people begin to see school as a safe and exciting place of exploration where they can share feelings and ideas, and where each child is recognized, valued and nurtured.”

PeopleChildrenIdeasFeelingsSchoolYoungCommunityTeacherShareStudentsCommunicationSafeExcitingPartnersRelateExplorationFactoriesInteractionNonviolent CommunicationTeacher And StudentTop Down
Author:Riane Eisler
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“I am a taxonomist, I work in the descriptive, narrative sciences of natural history. Unfortunately there is this status ordering from physics, the queen of the sciences up on top, down through a bunch of squishy subjects, ending up with sociology and psychology on the bottom. Palaeontologists are not much above that in their conventional ordering.”

NaturalPsychologySubjectsBottomPhysicsBunchNarrativeQueensConventionalSociologyNatural HistoryTop Down
Author:Richard Lewontin
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“"Oppression" or "systems of oppression" operate as a shorthand terms in much writing and speaking so that we do not have to list all these systems of meaning and control each time (i.e. racism, ableism, xenophobia, etc.). I needed a term like that, but "oppression" implies a kind of top-down understanding of power that is at odds with the Foucaultian model I rely on in my work.”

WritingKindUnderstandingTermNeededModelsRacismListsOppressionRelyEtcOddsXenophobiaTop DownShorthand
Author:Dean Spade
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“Anarchism is grounded in a rather definite social-psychological hypothesis: that forceful, graceful and intelligent behaviour occurs only when there is an uncoerced and direct response to the physical and social environment; that in most human affairs, more harm than good results from compulsion, top-down direction, bureaucratic planning, pre-ordained curricula, jails, conscription, states.”

HumansStatesSocialResultsEnvironmentDirectIntelligentResponseAffairHarmPlanningPsychologicalJailAnarchyBehaviourDefiniteGroundedHypothesisCompulsionAnarchismTop DownConscriptionSocial Environment
Book:Like a conquered province: the moral ambiguity of America
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“The inherent non-linearity of the digital allows for more input from others, including the subject and reader as collaborators. The top-down, bedtime-style story is of limited use. A non-linear narrative that allows for increased complexity and depth, and encourages both subject and reader to have greater involvement, will eventually emerge more fully from the digital environment. This, in a sense, is the more profound democratization of media.”

StoriesUseEnvironmentGreaterSubjectsMediaStyleReaderProfoundDepthIncludingNarrativeComplexityDigitalInherentInvolvementLinearInputBedtimeCollaboratorsTop DownDemocratization
Author:Fred Ritchin
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“The term "national idea" is an unclear one. One might think of it as a widely shared understanding among a people as to the desired way of life in their country, an idea that holds sway over the population. A unifying concept like that can be useful, but should never be created artificially or imposed top-down by the powers-that-be.”

PeopleThinkingWayShouldIdeasCountryMightUnderstandingTermConceptsPopulationUnifyingUnclearTop Down
Author:Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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“For so long, companies were run using a command-and-control, 'top down' hierarchical method that involved dictating down the command chain and maintaining order. What I've witnessed in our time is evolving democratization, a shift to a demand economy accelerated by technological advancements like social media.”

LongRunningOrderSocialCompanyEconomyMediaInvolvedDemandMethodSocial MediaCommandChainsEvolveOur TimeTechnologicalMaintainingAdvancementTop DownDemocratizationDictatingTechnological AdvancementCommand And ControlMaintaining Order
Author:Kevin Allen
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“The traditional paradigm of parenting has been very hierarchical, the parent knows best and very top down. Conscious parenting topples [this paradigm] on its head and creates this mutuality, this circularity where both parent and child serve each other and where in fact, perhaps, the child could be even more of a guru for the parent .... teaching the parent how the parent needs to grow, teaching the parent how to enter the present moment like only children know how to do.”

KnowsNeedsChildrenHas BeensMomentsFactsGrowsParentKnow HowTeachingConsciousTraditionalPresent MomentGuruParadigmOnly ChildChildren And ParentsTop DownCircularity
Author:Shefali Tsabary
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“I think the thing you're seeing now with the music industry is that the people who have tight-knit communities are now able to really hold each other up because of the internet tools. And the really top-down pyramid scheme of major labels and typical superstars isn't sustainable anymore because the system has collapsed.”

PeopleThinkingAbleCommunitySeeingIndustryInternetMajorsToolsLabelsSchemesTypicalPyramidsMusic IndustrySuperstarTop DownPyramid Schemes
Author:Amanda Palmer
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“Work can be undertaken to create an authentic independent political party, a real party, based on popular participation from the ground up, not a top-down candidate producing organization like the two official parties, working from school boards to state legislatures and beyond. Not easy in the regressive U.S. political system, but not impossible.”

TwoRealStatesSchoolPoliticalEasyPartyImpossibleOrganizationIndependentBoardsOfficialsCandidatesParticipationPolitical PartiesLegislaturePolitical SystemsTop DownState LegislaturesSchool Board
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“If we look at the last decades, we see that the US rightist-fundamentalist alliance demonized partnership-oriented families and painted women's rights as a threat to "tradition" - which of course it is to traditions of domination. These people had an integrated political agenda that recognizes that a "traditional" authoritarian, male dominated, punitive family is foundational to an authoritarian, male dominated, punitive politics. We can see this connection in sharp relief in brutal top-down regimes, be they secular like Nazi Germany or religious like ISIS in the Middle East.”

PeopleIfsLooksLastsPoliticalCoursesReligiousRightsMiddleTraditionConnectionsThreatMalesEastDecadesTraditionalGermanyReliefAgendasRegimesMiddle EastPartnershipBrutalSecularWomens RightsNaziDominationIsisAlliancesIntegratedFundamentalistNazi GermanyTop DownPolitical Agendas
Author:Riane Eisler
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“With the never-ending stream of new social technologies, apps and platforms rolling out every day, its easy to get lost in the minutiae of social media. Yet for there to be effective change, especially within large, top-down, hierarchical institutions, a company must have an over-arching understanding of the new role it has to play.”

PlayLostSocialEasyUnderstandingCompanyRolesTechnologyMediaInstitutionsSocial MediaStreamsPlatformsRollingNever EndingEasy To GetAppsTop DownMinutiae
Author:Simon Mainwaring
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“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.”

InspirationalSuccessCareersSuccessfulMilitaryPositiveFailureDeterminationBottomUpliftingBeing SuccessfulOfficersWorld War IiSuccessful PeopleHittingSuccess In LifeWorld War 2BounceGreat SuccessMotivational SuccessSuccesInspirational SuccessCareer SuccessTop DownInspirational CareerProfessional CareerMotivational CareerHigh NotesMilitary LeadershipHistorical MilitaryMilitary GeneralSteps To SuccessDesire To SucceedHitting Bottom
Author:George S. Patton
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