Those who claim that the wealth they have accumulated is theirs to pass on without returning anything back to the American system show a shocking lack of appreciation for all that the system and public monies did to help them create wealth.
Author: Bill Gates Sr. | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy
The will to power still passes through hatred on the right and virtue on the left.
Author: George Packer | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Concepts, Politics & Public Policy, Power, Psychology | Behavior
We are living with a new kind of regime that didn’t exist in Orwell’s time. It combines hard nationalism—the diversion of frustration and cynicism into xenophobia and hatred—with soft distraction and confusion: a blend of Orwell and Huxley, cruelty and entertainment. The state of mind that the Party enforces through terror in 1984, where truth becomes so unstable that it ceases to exist, we now … [ Read more ]
Author: George Packer | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Concepts, Information, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Orwell never intended his novel to be a prediction, only a warning. And it’s as a warning that 1984 keeps finding new relevance.
Author: George Packer | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Literature | Arts, Politics & Public Policy
Human beings crave order and simplicity. We cling to the hope that some day, if we really refine our world view and beliefs, we can actually find the fully correct way to think — the absolute truth and final side to stand on. People and systems craving power take advantage of this desire and pit us against each other using a “this or that” mentality. … [ Read more ]
Author: Andrew W.K. | Source: The Village Voice | Subjects: Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
At its best, politics is able to organize extremely complex world views into manageable and communicable systems so they can be grappled with and studied abstractly. But even the most noble efforts to organize the world are essentially futile. The best we can usually achieve is a crude and messy map of life from one particular vantage point, featuring a few grids, bullet points, and … [ Read more ]
Author: Andrew W.K. | Source: The Village Voice | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
The presidency is like a soft leather glove, and it takes the shape of the hand that’s put into it. And when a very big hand is put into it and stretches the glove — stretches the office — the glove never quite shrinks back to what it was.
Author: George Will | Subjects: America, Politics & Public Policy
In the final analysis, the progress of our civilization will be retarded if any large body of citizens falls behind. Without the help of thousands of others, any one of us would die, naked and starved.
Author: Franklin D. Roosevelt | Subjects: Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
I think that he [Theodore Roosevelt] makes a serious mistake in interfering—politically, at least. His tendency to make the executive power stronger than the houses of congress is bound to be a bad thing, especially when a man of weaker personality succeeds him in office.
Author: Franklin D. Roosevelt | Subjects: History, Politics & Public Policy
The only counterweight to capitalism is government. Labor would like to be the counterweight but it isn’t quite yet. So the one entity that can really create a restraining mechanism on runaway capitalism is government.
Author: Clay S. Jenkinson | Subjects: Economics | Economy, Politics & Public Policy
The people most likely to believe the government is too incompetent to be trusted are often the people most likely to believe the government also has the ability to secretly orchestrate massive operations under the noses of most Americans.
Author: Joe Forrest | Subjects: Concepts, Intelligence | Knowledge, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
Facts are the center. We don’t pretend that certain facts are in dispute to give the appearance of fairness to people who don’t believe them. Balance is irrelevant. It doesn’t have anything to do with truth, logic or reality.
Subjects: Concepts, Facts | Bias, Intelligence | Knowledge, Politics & Public Policy
The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.
Author: Hannah Arendt | Subjects: Politics & Public Policy, Sociology | Anthropology
Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.
Author: Charles de Gaulle | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
As Orwell knew, a people’s memory sets the measure of its political freedom.
Author: Wilson Carey McWilliams | Subjects: Concepts, Freedom | Liberty, Politics & Public Policy
Progress is never permanent, will always be threatened, must be redoubled, restated and reimagined if it is to survive.
Author: Zadie Smith | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy
Abilities must be assessed, talents must be developed, ambitions guided. This is the task for our public schools. All the future citizens pass through these institutions. They must be educated as members of a political democracy, but, more important still, they must be equipped to step on to the first rung of whatever ladder of opportunity seems most appropriate. And an appropriate ladder must be … [ Read more ]
Author: James Bryant Conant | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Politics & Public Policy
There is a disturbing American tendency to overreact to certain ideological and military factors while overlooking issues of vastly greater relevance to our safety and well-being.
Author: George McGovern | Subjects: Foreign Policy, Politics & Public Policy
Strictly idealistic undertakings eventually become too costly—in money, lives, and other assets. Wholly expedient and self-interested strategies eventually offend America’s self-image as a nobler exception among nations. Thus the story of American engagement with the world is the continual effort to find the right combination of idealism and practicality, and to readjust that balance almost as soon as it is set.
Author: James Fallows | Subjects: Foreign Policy, International
America doesn’t vote its class, as happens in, say, Europe. America votes its aspirations, and as long as its aspirations are such that “I can make it and my kids can make it,” then you don’t have the social tension that you have in Europe.
Author: Peter Schwartz | Subject: Politics & Public Policy