“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
George Orwell
“A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.”
George W. Bush
“Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.”
Harry S. Truman
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty”.
Plato
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.”
Charles Bukowski
Feel free to add any!!
Very good quotes. I had a good chuckle at the Bukowski one. Very nice, and quite valid.
ReplyDeleteHere's one by our man Noam Chomsky:
"The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations."
Here's another one from Voltaire:
"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."
Also, here's one from Walter Cronkite (often voted the most trusted man in America):
"I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that."
In reading the Voltaire and Cronkite quotes, it somewhat iterates how much the media plays in the general publics views of how democratic, or undemocratically they/we view ours and others governments. It is needless to say that a free and fair press is absolutely necessary to the trust and views subjects' have of theirs and others governments. Myself, among everyone else in our class like to search for truth on political issues that happen around the world. To me, it makes a difference.
The Truman one doesn't seem especially true, though...
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