Activism
Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. "The Soul of Man Under Socialism," in Fortnightly Review (London, Feb. 1891; repr. 1895).
Activist
I've always had the impression that real militants are like cleaning women, doing a thankless, daily but necessary job.
François Truffaut (1932-84), French film director. Letter, May-June 1973, to director Jean-Luc Godard (published in Letters, 1989).
Politicians
A sophistical rhetorician,
inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an
egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and
inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.
Benjamin
Disraeli (1804-81), English statesman, author. Speech, 27 July 1878, Knightsbridge,
London, said of Prime Minister Gladstone.
Revolution
Inferiors revolt
in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior.
Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Greek philosopher. Politics, bk. 5, ch. 2 (written c. 343 B.C.; tr. by Benjamin Jowett).
Repression
(Welcome
21st Century America)
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.
Noam
Chomsky ("Language and Freedom," lecture, delivered Jan. 1970, at Loyola
University, Chicago)
\
"How do you remember
it?"
"The way I remember
all my supposed memories. From the outside. Watching myself
in horrified fascination as I take a fiendish delight in cruelty. All
my memories prior to the moment I came to life on Ender's little voyage
Outside, in all of them I see myself through someone else's eyes. A very
odd feeling, I assure you."
"But Now?"
"Now I don't
see myself at all," he said. "Because I have no self. I am not myself."
"But you remember.
You have memories. Of this conversation, already you remember it.
Looking at me. You must, surely."
"Yes",
he said. " I remember you. And I remember being here
and seeing you. But there isn't any self behind my eyes.
I feel tired and stupid even when I'm being my most clever and brilliant."
He smiled a charming
smile and now Wang-mu could see again the true difference between Peter
and the hologram of the Hegemon. It was as he said; Even
at his most self-deprecating, this Peter Wiggin had eyes that flashed with
inner rage. He was dangerous. You could see it looking
at him. When he looked into your eyes, you could imagine him planning how
and when you would die.
"I am not
myself," said
Peter.
Orson
Scott Card "Children of the Mind" The Conclusion to Ender's saga.
pg.24-25
This
book was our first experience with someone describing what it feels like
to remember as a dissociative personality. It is a great diagnostic
tool for therapists and gives the lay persons some concept of what it feels
like to be us.
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