“Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda”
- Hannah Arendt
“One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive”
- Hannah Arendt
“Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow”
- Hannah Arendt
“Evil thrives on apathy and cannot survive without it”
- Hannah Arendt
"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists"
- Hannah Arendt
"Politically, the weakness of the argument has always been that those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil"
- Hannah Arendt
"To think and to be fully alive are the same"
- Hannah Arendt
"Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality"
- Hannah Arendt
“Evil thrives on apathy and cannot survive without it”
- Hannah Arendt
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“I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load, by all means possible.....except by getting off his back”
- Leo Tolstoy
“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking...”
- Leo Tolstoy
"The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth"
- Leo Tolstoy
THIS is a beautiful, poignant, powerful poem by the Palestinian poet, Taha Muhammad Ali
Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower
In his life
he neither wrote nor read.
In his life he
didn’t cut down a single tree,
didn’t slit the throat
of a single calf.
1/?
In his life he did not speak
of the New York Times
behind its back,
didn’t raise
his voice to a soul
except in his saying:
“Come in, please,
by God, you can’t refuse.”
—
Nevertheless -
his case is hopeless,
his situation
desperate.
2/3
His God-given rights are a grain of salt
tossed into the sea.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury:
about his enemies
my client knows not a thing.
3/4
“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people”
- Howard Zinn
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient
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all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem”
- Howard Zinn
YOU cannot understand politics unless you understand how PROPAGANDA works
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state”
- Noam Chomsky
“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until
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This is a poem by Allen Ginsberg about the 2003 Iraq War
Hum Bom!
Whom bomb?
We bomb'd them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb'd them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb'd them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb'd them!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
1/?
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
Who do we bomb?
What do we do?
You bomb! You bomb them!
What do we do?
You bomb! You bomb them!
What do we do?
We bomb! We bomb you!
What do we do?
You bomb! You bomb you!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb?
We bomb you!
Whom bomb? You bomb you!
Whom bomb?
You bomb you!
Whydja bomb?
We didn't wanna bomb!
Whydja bomb?
We didn't wanna bomb!
Whydja bomb?
You didn't wanna bomb!
Whydja bomb?
You didn't wanna bomb!
Who said bomb?
Who said we hadda bomb?