Left-Wing Quotes

Left Wing Quotes - Quotes, Slogans, Protest Signs, Band Names

Wisdom, Intelligence, Ignorance

Discipline

Wealth and Poverty

Science and Religion

Art and Music

Politics

Various

Civilization and Technology

Corporatism and Economics

War

G. W. Bush

Gene Downs Quotes

John Michael Greer Thoughts and Quotes

Taxes

Libertarianism

Capitalism and the Free Market

Post-Industrial, End of Empire

Socialism and Fascism

Liberalism and Conservatism

Fox News

Liberalism and Conservatism

South Carolina

The Second Amendment

Protest Signs

Gene Downs' Protest Signs

Gene Downs' Bumper Sticker Slogans

Gene Downs' Band Names

Wisdom, Intelligence, Ignorance

All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, and meaningless in some sense. Robert Anton Wilson

You have a right to your own opinion. But unless that opinion is founded on carefully considered facts, you do not have the right to have your opinion taken seriously. The lofty heights of the soapbox are for those who've earned the right to be there. Eugene E Downs

Remember, stupid people do not know they are stupid. Unknown

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Krishnamurti

It is only when life-changing events alter one's predisposition that room becomes available for new beliefs. Charles Eisenstein

I'm reminded of Ernest Thompson Seton's rules for woodcraft: "Where you are, with what you have, right now." Unknown

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good." Steven Wright

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein

My favourite anecdote about writers and writing is about Raymond Chandler: apparently he used to lock himself into a room with very few things (and crucially, a typewriter), without any commitment to writing - he just had to stay in the room for a couple of hours. Normally he'd just whittle away an hour or two, but after that it got so boring that he started writing because it was more interesting than staring at the traffic outside. Unknown

It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable. Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983), The Passionate State of Mind, 1954

Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence. Spanish Proverb

Whenever they determine the center of the universe, some people are gonna be really upset when they realize that they're not in it. Unknown

In this age where media is owned, controlled and manipulated by corporations, where the careers of the punditry depend on catapulting the consequent propaganda, the reality is that most everything you think you believe or believe in is a collection of lies created to control you. Eugene E Downs

Listen or thy tongue shall make you deaf. Native American saying.

Whoso keepth his tongue in his mouth, keepeth his soul from troubles. Proverbs

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Abraham Lincoln

Knowledge is learning something every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day. Zen proverb

Ever notice that "what the hell" is always the right decision? Marilyn Monroe

Fais ce que dois, advienne que pouras.

Do what should, happen what will.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell

It is only charlatans who are certain; doubt is not a very agreeable state, but certainty is a ridiculous one. Voltaire

No affectation of peculiarity can conceal a commonplace mind. Somerset Maugham

If we are the only intelligent life in the universe, at least there are a finite number of idiots. Steven Coalier

The masses have little time to think. And how incredible is the willingness of modern man to believe. Benito Mussolini

Bravery and stupidity go hand in hand. David Summers

Hard work dispels worry. Unknown

If you do what you always do, you'll be what you've always been. Unknown

The world is governed more by appearance than realities, so it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as it is to know it. Unknown

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. Mark Twain

Sorrow is knowledge; they who know the most must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. Byron

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. Saul Bellow

The best defense against logic is ignorance. Unknown

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. Hector Berlioz

Cognito cognito ergo cognito sum. (I think I think, therefore I think I am) Ambrose Bierce

If we are the only intelligent life in the universe, at least there are a finite number of idiots. Steven Coalier

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. Harlan Ellison

Strong words are required for weak principles. Doug Horton

That millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane. Eric Fromm

Industry, thrift, and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character. Calvin Coolidge

All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self-determination. There is no moral worth in being swept away by a crowd even toward the best objective. William Channing

Whoever chooses to block the truth eventually gets trampled. Unknown

Common sense, as defined by conservatives, is mere low-order brain activity informed by a herd-like conformity to uncritical thought, often as not borrowed from a morally and intellectually bankrupt source. Eugene E Downs

The rebel knows that, as Augustine wrote, hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage -- anger at the way things are and the courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. The rebel is aware that virtue is not rewarded. The act of rebellion defines itself. Unknown

As you wallow there in the muck of your double digit I.Q., please realize that some of us prefer to remain unsullied. Eugene E Downs

Don't waste time with people who want to argue. They'll keep you immobilized forever. Look for people who are already open to something new. Daniel Quinn, 'Beyond Civilization'

We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full. Marcel Proust

The tree of wisdom is watered by tears. Swiss proverb

Trials give you strength, sorrows give understanding and wisdom. Unknown

Money may talk, but it rarely says anything interesting. At least bullshit makes good fertilizer. Ellie Erickson

Intelligence is a curse. Eugene E Downs

The end does not justify the means. Choose carefully the path, for as the Buddhists say, "the path is the goal". An ill chosen path, in pursuit of even the most noble of goals, changes you. You become as is the path. If the path is not true, the goal will deviate in kind, with the end result being a perverted goal and a diminished self. Eugene E Downs

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Martin Luther King

We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. Mark Twain

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. Calvin Coolidge

How miserable are the idle hours of the ignorant man. Unknown

Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it. Joseph Conrad

Opportunities multiply as they are seized. - Sun Tzu, Chinese author and military strategist, c. 544-496 BC

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Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines.

Successfully intelligent people discern their strengths and weaknesses, and then figure out how to capitalize on their strengths, and to compensate for or remediate their weaknesses. Successfully intelligent individuals succeed in part because they achieve a functional balance among a "triarchy" of abilities:

Analytical Abilities, which are used to analyze, evaluate, judge, compare and contrast;

Creative Abilities, which are used to create, invent, discover, imagine;

Practical Abilities, which are used to apply, utilize, implement, and activate.

Successfully intelligent people are not necessarily high in all three of these abilities, but find a way effectively to exploit whatever pattern of abilities they may have. Unknown

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Discipline

The five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and getting off your rump and doing something. Unknown

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.

Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. Calvin Coolidge

Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it. Joseph Conrad

Opportunities multiply as they are seized. - Sun Tzu, Chinese author and military strategist, c. 544-496 BC

Parkinson’s Law — Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

I'm reminded of Ernest Thompson Seton's rules for woodcraft: "Where you are, with what you have, right now." Unknown

My favourite anecdote about writers and writing is about Raymond Chandler: apparently he used to lock himself into a room with very few things (and crucially, a typewriter), without any commitment to writing - he just had to stay in the room for a couple of hours. Normally he'd just whittle away an hour or two, but after that it got so boring that he started writing because it was more interesting than staring at the traffic outside. Unknown

Wealth and Poverty

Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. Joseph Stiglitz

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all. John Maynard Keynes

You can measure social justice by the screams of anquish from the very rich. John K. Galbraith

Generosity toward the lower classes historically has never been an important part of upper-class awareness. Michael Parenti

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters. Victor Hugo

The goal of a good society is to structure social relations and institutions so that cooperative and generous impulses are rewarded, while antisocial ones are discouraged. The problem with capitalism is that it best rewards the worst part of us: ruthless, competitive, conniving, opportunistic, acquisitive drives, giving little reward and often much punishment — or at least much handicap — to honesty, compassion, fair play, many forms of hard work, love of justice, and a concern for those in need.

The first law of the market is to make the largest possible profit from other people’s labor or go out of business. Profitability rather than human need is the determining condition of private investment. Michael Parenti

In societies that worship money and success, the losers become objects of scorn. Those who work the hardest for the least are called lazy. Those forced to live in substandard housing are thought to be the authors of substandard lives. Those who do not finish high school or cannot afford to go to college are considered deficient or inept. Michael Parenti

There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and winning. Warren Buffet

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. Alexander Tytler

I am not for a return of that definition of liberty under which for many years a free people were being gradually regimented into the service of the privileged few. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to get Jerry Falwell's fat ass into heaven. Eugene E Downs

Whenever a really good idea is in danger of taking hold in the society, call it Socialism. Soon buzzards will gather. Eugene E Downs

Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. Karl Marx

Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all. Adam Smith

What is the matter with the poor is poverty, what is the matter with the rich is uselessness. George Bernard Shaw

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth. Nero Wolfe

Science and Religion

Religion is the favorite hammer in the despot's toolbox. Eugene E Downs

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. Thomas Jefferson, Feb 10, 1814

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. Seneca the Younger

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education. Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)

God is best known in not knowing Him. St. Augustine

I believe that I'm god, because whenever I pray I find I'm talking to myself. Unknown

Beware the man of one book. St. Thomas Aquinas

The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum. Thomas Paine

Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be nullified on behalf of a single petitioner, admittedly unworthy. Ambrose Bierce

In conclusion, 'reality' is a concept borrowed from the theologians who, being bankrupt, are in no position to loan anything to anybody. R.A. Wilson

If you want to do evil, science provides the most powerful weapons to do evil; but equally, if you want to do good, science puts into your hands the most powerful tools to do so. Richard Dawkins

According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless. Ashleigh Brilliant

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows. Robert Ingersol

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Einstein (at Bertrand Russell's trial)

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Einstein

There's always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible and wrong. Henry Louis Mencken

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong. Bertrand Russell

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence; it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines. Bertrand Russell

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. Bertrand Russell

Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history. George Bernard Shaw

Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows. Robert Ingersol

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than of blindfolded fear. Thomas Jefferson

My opinion is that there never would have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest. The artificial structures they have built...for the purpose of pense and power, revolts those who think for themselves. Thomas Jefferson

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others. Bertrand Russell

Hands that help are far better than lips that pray. Robert Ingersoll

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. Andre Gide

The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian religion. From the Treaty of Tripoli (1791?). Attributed to George Washington

In "The Rights of Man" Thomas Paine spoke on the mythology of "tolerance" that is worthy of consideration:

Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but it is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, and the other of granting it. The one is the pope, armed with fire and fagot, and the other is the pope selling or granting indulgences. Thomas Paine - 'The Rights of Man'

Toleration is a good thing in its place, but you cannot tolerate what will not tolerate you, and is trying to cut your throat. James Anthony Froude

When Christians speak of faith, I like to remind them that it was faith, and faith alone, that created the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush. Not talent, not accomplishment, and certainly not character. No, this Potemkin presidency was an edifice created on the exploited loyalties of faith-based fools in order that they might be manipulated to do the bidding of the arrogant and the avaricious. Eugene E Downs

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Thomas Paine

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. Thomas Paine

The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system. Thomas Paine

The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion. It has been the most dishonorable belief against the character of the Divinity, the most destructive to morality and the peace and happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man began to exist. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1794-1795

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, not by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my Church. Thomas Paine, Excerpts from The Age of Reason

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business government has to do therewith. Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish [Muslim], appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1794-1795

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1794-1795

As priestcraft was always the enemy of knowledge, because priestcraft supports itself by keeping people in delusion and ignorance, it was consistent with its policy to make the acquisition of knowledge a real sin. Thomas Paine, Of The Religion of Deism Compared With the Christian Religion

“The Bible is not my book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma. Abraham Lincoln

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion. Abraham Lincoln

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state. Thomas Jefferson, as President, in a letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, 1802

Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the wall of separation between church and state, therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. President Thomas Jefferson: in a speech to the Virginia Baptists, 1808

Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, He must approve the homage of Reason rather than that of blindfolded Fear. Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787

“Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and imposters led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus. Thomas Jefferson

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology. Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short

Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782 Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves...these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ. Thomas Jefferson

History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Baron von Humboldt, 1813

In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a Virgin Mary, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. . . . But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away all this artificial scaffolding. Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 11 April 1823

Quotes of JAMES MADISON, author of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights:

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries. James Madison

Strongly guarded as is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history. James Madison

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together. James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. James Madison

Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and all of which facilitates the execution of mischievous projects. Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect. James Madison, in a letter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774

Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion of all other sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute threepence only of his property for the support of any one establishment may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever? James Madison, “A Memorial and Remonstrance,” addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785

Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom? In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the U. S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion. The law appointing Chaplains establishes a religious worship for the national representatives, to be performed by Ministers of religion, elected by a majority of them, and these are to be paid out of the national taxes. Does this not involve the principle of a national establishment? Better also to disarm in the same way, the precedent of Chaplainships for the army and navy, than erect them into a political authority in matters of religion. . . . Religious proclamations by the Executive recommending thanksgivings and fasts are shoots from the same root with the legislative acts reviewed. Altho’ recommendations only, they imply a religious agency, making no part of the trust delegated to political rulers. James Madison

Every new & successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance. James Madison letter of 10 July 1822 to Edward Livingston

It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will best be guarded against by an entire abstinence of the Government from interference in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect against trespasses on its legal rights by others. James Madison, "James Madison on Religious Liberty”, edited by Robert S. Alley, ISBN pp 237-238

Art and Music

It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great. Movie quote - A League of Their Own

Normal is just a setting on the dryer. Suzy Reedy

I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. Mark Twain

An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it. Paul Valery

That which is static and repetitive is boring. That which is dynamic and random is confusing. In between lies art. John Locke

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. Emile Zola

And it is to be noted that it is the fact that Art is this intense form of individualism that makes the public try to exercise over it an authority that is as immoral as it is ridiculous, and as corrupting as it is contemptible. It is not quite their fault. The public have always, and in every age, been badly brought up. They are continually asking Art to be popular, to please their want of taste, to flatter their absurd vanity, to tell them what they have been told before, to show them what they ought to be tired of seeing, to amuse them when they feel heavy after eating too much, and to distract their thoughts when they are wearied of their own stupidity. Now Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic....The public dislike novelty because they are afraid of it. It represents to them a mode of Individualism, an assertion on the part of the artist that he selects his own subject, and treats it as he chooses. The public are quite right in their attitude. Art is Individualism, and Individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. Therein lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. Oscar Wilde - The Soul of Man Under Socialism

If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know. Tom Wolfe

I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down’. Bob Newhart

Politics

You want to know what they hate more than anything else in life? They can't stand for people not to take them seriously. If you laugh at them for an instant, it's just like – the devil walks in the room, right? And he goes, "I'm the Devil," and you take a fork and poke him in the belly, and the gas comes out, and he'll go twirling around the room like an unleashed balloon. That's the way these guys are. You can't laugh at them. They hate it, because they're so full of shit, they're so full of themselves that they just can't believe that people don't appreciate them for the grand, highly evolved creatures that they imagine themselves to be. They hate to be laughed at. If they weren't so fucking dangerous, it would be fun to laugh at them all the time, but sometimes you have to take into account how much damage they can do. Frank Zappa

What America needs is more FDR, not more DLC. Eugene E Downs

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That is, in essence, fascism. Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is and will always be customers that create jobs.... I will hire new employees only when I have enough new customers to justify new employees. Brian Smith, business owner Cuyahoga Falls

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith

Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. Denis Diderot

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. Mark Twain

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Abraham Lincoln

People often say with pride 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedom, my future or any future. Martha Gelhorn

Hey, asshole, remember how you said, "freedom ain't free"? Pay your taxes and STFU. Eugene E Downs

When facism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. Sinclair Lewis

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. Oscar Wilde

African proverb: Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. Jerry Garcia

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all. John F. Kennedy

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking

First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win. Mahatma Gandhi

What luck for rulers that men do not think. Hitler

Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see Paradise as Hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as Paradise. Hitler

It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. David Hume

If a society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. JFK

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. JFK

Politics is the means by which the will of the few becomes the will of the many. Howard Koch

Those who rule the symbols rule us. Alfred Korzybski

At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer. Marshall Lumsden

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. Napoleon

A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time. Alfred E Wiggans

A real patriot is a the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works. Unknown

If voting should change anything, there would be a law against it. Unknown

The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. Alex Carey

Patriotism in times like these required an impaired sense of smell. Eugene E Downs

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Ben Franklin

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Herman Goering at Nuremberg Trial

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature! George Bernard Shaw

The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt

Fear not the path of truth, for lack of people walking on it. Robert Kennedy

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce and brave man, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it cost nothing to be a patriot. Mark Twain

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. Albert Einstein

If you want to get anything done in this country you've got to complain until you're blue in the House. Oeditpus Rex

Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty. Gandhi

A nation that makes nothing unmakes itself. Eugene E Downs

Tricks and Treachery are the practice of fools who don't have the brains to be honest. Benjamin Franklin

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H. L. Mencken

Rick Perry: giving hope for respectability to used car salesmen everywhere. Eugene E Downs

Various

All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, and meaningless in some sense. Robert Anton Wilson

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car. Unknown

I'm reminded of Ernest Thompson Seton's rules for woodcraft: "Where you are, with what you have, right now." Unknown

"I intend to live forever. So far, so good." Steven Wright

Death before discomfort. Eugene E Downs

If it weren't for radicals, we'd still be living in caves. Eugene E Downs

I reject the lesser evil voting strategy. It presumes that I am better off with a government that takes a year to strangle me vs. one that accomplishes my demise in a mere six months. In the end I am still dead. Unknown

Defensive rights always trump offensive rights. My right to freedom always trumps your right to exploit me, and if you do try to exploit me, I have the right to stop you, even at some expense to you. Derrick Jensen

It is and will always be customers that create jobs.... I will hire new employees only when I have enough new customers to justify new employees. Brian Smith, business owner Cuyahoga Falls

Fox News: Bringing a whole new slant to the term 'idiot box'. Eugene E Downs

My life would be so much easier if I were dead. Eugene E Downs

A South Carolina political observer said that the state is too small to be its own country and too big to be an insane asylum. Unknown

Pacifism is consistently reactionary. It waits for the strike, and then turns the other cheek. Enough. The time for pacifism has passed. If our government can claim the right of the preemptive strike against that which, despite its propagandistic claims to the contrary, is not evil, we can claim that same right against that government which is clearly and demonstrably evil. Unknown

if people are poorly educated, their votes will reflect an ignorance that is the antithesis of liberty. They will vote against their liberty and call themselves patriots for doing so. Sankara Saranam

Some few of us are in a hellish limbo, simply waiting for total collapse because it is easier to rebuild from nothing than to change billions of minds not even remotely concerned with the looming catastrophe. Joe Bageant

Love of comfort is the death of courage. Joe Bageant

You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion--you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit…Sleep….sleep….” -Anthony Bourdain, on Rachel Ray's cooking show

I love the word "fail." Failure is human destiny. Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play. From the French film, 'Amelie'.

I called them crazy, and they called me crazy. Damn them, they out-voted me. Oscar Wilde

Reality has a well-known liberal bias. Stephen Colbert

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. Frederick Douglas

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. And inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx

The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre. Frank Zappa

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Samuel Johnson?

I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of the whole human being. Abraham Lincoln

One man's teeth are another man's pliers. Unknown

If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive. Samuel Goldwyn

Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality. Theodor Adorno

Illegitimi non carborundum. (Don't let the bastards wear you down) Unknown

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good you'll have to ram them down people's throuats. Howard Aiken

Justifying space exploration because we get non-stick frying pans is like justifying music because it is good exercise for the violinists right arm. Richard Dawkins

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair

Annoy a Liberal: Lie, Cheat, Steal, Hate, Kill. Unknown

My life seems like one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle. Jack Parr

As you believe, so shall it be..., until you run into reality. Unknown

Like all weak men, he laid an exaggerated stress upon not changing one's mind." - W. Somerset Maugham

The difference between the White man and us is this: You believe in the redeeming powers of suffering, if the suffering was done by somebody else far away, two thousand years ago. We believe that it is up to every one of us to help each other, even through the pain of our bodies. ...We do not lay this burden onto our god, nor do we want to miss being face to face with the spirit power. It is when we are fasting on the hilltop or tearing our flesh at the sundance, that we experience the sudden insight, come closest to the mind of the Great Spirit. Insight does not come cheaply, and we want no angel or saint to gain it for us and to give it to us second hand. Lame Deer

Bill Pulliam on the feminization/emasculation of males in American society: The typical American male is heavily defined by his job. Take away the job and you take away the masculine identity. I think hypermasculinized super heros and gansters [gangsta rap] are an attempt at fantasy escape from the reality of being dependent on others to support you instead of you supporting others. Like everything else in the present day, image is used to attempt to substitute for unsatisfactory reality. Bill Pulliam (from John Michael Greer's Twilight of Meaning essay, comments section)

Civilization and Technology

How much of the great poetry of solitude in the woods is one long cadenza of the sadness of civilization. William Matthews Civilization and It's Discontents

Men have become the tools of their tools. Henry David Thoreau

The post modern philosophy emerging out of the technological juggernaut has afforded unparalleled perceptual tools for deconstructing what most needs deconstruction - mass technology itself. Chellis Glendinning

Corporatism and Economics

It is and will always be customers that create jobs.... I will hire new employees only when I have enough new customers to justify new employees. Brian Smith, business owner Cuyahoga Falls

Government is the shadow cast by business on society. John Dewey

In the absence of economic democracy, “politics is the shadow cast on society by big business." Noam Chomsky

Criminal, n. A person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation. Howard Scot

When empires die, they die broke. Joe Bageant

Trickle down? I'd call it 'trickle up', for surely that is the direction of the flow. But this, friend, is no mere trickle. Eugene E Downs

The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce that comes from [merchants and master manufacturers] ought always to be listened to with great precaution. … It comes from an order of men who have generally an interest to deceive and even oppress the public. Adam Smith

People of the same trade seldom meet together but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some diversion to raise prices. Adam Smith

Let your life be a friction against the machine. Henry David Thoreau

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. Ambrose Bierce

In large-scale enterprise, private ownership is a fiction for the purpose of enabling functionless owners to live parasitically on the labor of others. EF Schumacher (pg. 267 - Small is Beautiful)

It is no accident that successful businessmen are often astonishingly primitive; they live in a world made primitive by this process of reduction [of life to only that which produces a profit]. Their judgments on actions dictated by a more comprehensive outlook on the meaning and purpose of life are generally quite worthless. EF Schumacher (pg. 255 - Small is Beautiful)

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all. Mario Silva

I see in the near future a crisis approaching. It unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than an autocracy, more selfish than a bureaucracy, denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon crimes.

I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me & the financial institutions at the rear; the latter is my greatest foe. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed. Abraham Lincoln

War

When a military helicopter goes down, weapons stocks go up. War -> death -> PROFIT!!! Eugene E Downs

is it just a coincidence that missiles are penis-shaped? Eugene E Downs

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Isaac Asimov

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) (attributed)

I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land. Mark Twain

Using war to defeat terrorism is like using fire to defeat roaches – which only destroys the house, not the roaches. Robert Steinback

I have the consolation to reflect that during the period of my administration not a drop of the blood of a single citizen was shed by the sword of war. Thomas Jefferson

War would end if the dead could return. Stanley Baldwin

The tragedy of modern war is not so much that the young men die but that they die fighting each other--instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals. Edward Abbey

War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. ... Loyalty -- or mystic devotion to the State -- becomes the major imagined human value.

In this great herd machinery, dissent is like sand in the bearings. The State ideal is primarily a sort of blind animal push toward military unity. Any difference with that unity turns the whole vast impulse toward crushing it.

-- Randolph Bourne, journalist and critic, 1918

There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. AJ Muste

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing. Dwight D. Eisenhower

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will know peace. Jimi Hendrix

G. W. Bush

All Bush has managed to do is turn millionaires into billionaires and thousandaires into hundredaires. Eugene E Downs

Bush: Confident, determined and WRONG! Eugene E Downs

To call George Bush the devil is an insult ... to the devil. Eugene E Downs

Bush: Like a rock ... but dumber. Unknown

Gene Downs Quotes

What was possible in the past without oil is what will be possible in a future without oil. Eugene E Downs

You must become what you were born to be, or you will be what you have allowed yourself to become. Eugene E Downs

Religion is the favorite hammer in the despot's toolbox. Eugene E Downs

Death before discomfort. Eugene E Downs

If it weren't for radicals, we'd still be living in caves. Eugene E Downs

Multiculturalism does not work.

People self-segregate naturally. Some hate the rich. Others hate people based on race. It ain't pretty, but it ain't going away. Ever. Fighting it is a waste of time.

Strongly monocultural societies (like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland) are better places to live for a variety of reasons, many of them directly related to the monocultural aspect of their cultures. Levels of trust, social empathy and a willingness to contribute to the common good are higher, for example, while rates of crime and violence are much lower. The social cohesiveness for which these countries are famous comes as a direct result of their *lack* of diversity.

What's more, with the coming of the new age of austerity (poverty, hardship) resulting from the end of the industrial age (the age of cheap oil), we will see a re-segregation of society and much less tolerance for liberal attitudes toward race issues. Eugene E Downs

What America needs is more FDR, not more DLC. Eugene E Downs

A nation that makes nothing, unmakes itself. Eugene E Downs

Patriotism, in times like these, requires an impaired sense of smell. Eugene E Downs

With so much at stake and the effects already plainly evident, disinformation campaigns against scientific consensus on climate change are a crime against nature and humanity. In light of the extraordinary irresponsibility of such actions on the part of individual scientists and the political and corporate organizations that foment this disinformation, a need exists for official recognition for these crimes, and appropriate punishments up to and including an individual and organizational death penalty should be explored and instituted immediately. Eugene E Downs

Government is the mechanism through which "the people" in a democracy exercise their will for the common good (or as in The Constitution, the general welfare). Fascism is when the mechanism becomes aligned with, and functions in the interest of business (or moneyed or otherwise powerful interest groups), usually, but not always, to the detriment of "the people". The point is that the interests of the people are secondary and coincidental. The needs of business are paramount. Eugene E Downs

It's really very simple. China is the world's new empire. And we created them. We traded our own empire status for cheap plastic shit from a poor nation that was all too willing to grow rich from our stupidity. Now, as they rise, we fall. Thanks a lot, free-market idiots. Eugene E Downs

Hey, asshole, remember when you said, "Freedom ain't free"? Pay your taxes and STFU! Eugene E Downs

As you wallow there in the muck of your double digit I.Q., please realize that some of us prefer to remain unsullied. Eugene E Downs

When Christians speak of faith, I like to remind them that it was faith, and faith alone, that created the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush. Not talent, not accomplishment, and certainly not character. No, this Potemkin presidency was built upon the exploited loyalties of faith-based fools who were and ever are then manipulated to do the bidding of the arrogant and the avaricious. Eugene E Downs

Trickle down? I'd call it 'trickle up', for surely that is the direction of the flow. But this, friend, is no mere trickle. Eugene E Downs

In this age where media is owned, controlled and manipulated by corporations, where the careers of the punditry depend on catapulting the consequent propaganda, the reality is that everything you think you believe or believe in is just a collection of lies created to control you. Eugene E Downs

All Bush managed to do is turn millionaires into billionaires and thousandaires into hundredaires. Effect, meet cause. Eugene E Downs

Fox News: Bringing a whole new slant to the term 'idiot box'. Eugene E Downs

My life would be so much easier if I were dead. Eugene E Downs

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to get Jerry Falwell's fat ass into heaven. Eugene E Downs

Intelligence is a curse. Eugene E Downs

Socialism is the name given to any good idea that comes along ... like a baby seal just before they club it to death. Eugene E Downs

The end does not justify the means. Choose carefully the path, for as the Buddhists say, "the path is the goal". An ill-chosen path, in pursuit of even the most noble goal, changes you. You become as is the path. If the path is not true, the goal will deviate in kind, with the end result being a perverted goal and a diminished self. Eugene E Downs

In a just society no man would have two homes until all others have one. Eugene E Downs

Trickle down economics was considered stupid thirty years ago when it was proposed, and has been proven to be so many times since. Giving money to those who don't need it at the expense of those who do is a recipe for a disastrous economy. Effect, meet cause. Eugene E Downs

When kids ask me how they can become a great guitarist, I always recommend that they listen to Ted Nugent. Yeah, listen to Ted. And then do anything, dear God in Heaven, ANYTHING but that. Eugene E Downs

Their shallowness knows no bottom. Eugene E Downs

The slice and dice of revolution (guillotine) is an awfully messy way to redistribute wealth. Don't say I didn't warn you. Eugene E Downs

Economics is not complicated. General equality equals general prosperity. Eugene E Downs

It is popular among conservatives to defend the wealth gap that exists in America. They say, it's their money, they earned it, etc. Nope, sorry. It's not their money. All wealth derives from nature. All wealth comes from the common wealth of the Earth. And therefore belongs to us all in common, a gift from our planet. Somehow we've gotten the screwy idea that it's okay, tenable, sustainable (when it is none of these) to divide up our common wealth and give much more to a select few while millions barely survive. At some point that is just going to blow up in your face. That time is now. Eugene E Downs

Brain research has proven that we as a species place a high value on equality over inequality. Even the rich are happy to see the poor made more equal; it - at least - relieves them of guilt or fear of persecution. Humans are not purely self-interested economic actors. Inequality is not the preferred human condition. Fight for equality without fear, you will succeed. Eugene E Downs

I finally figured it out. The difference between the GOP and Dems is that the GOP would vote to destroy the country rather than let the Dems win. Eugene E Downs

Rational argument is always at a disadvantage to an argument that is based on lies. It's like allowing someone who is completely ignorant of boxing to referee a match. The outcome is a foregone conclusion if one boxer fights by the rules and the other is allowed, without consequence, to use low blows, head butts and elbows. This is why Democrats often, too often, lose to Republicans. Eugene E Downs

Inequality is socially corrosive. Eugene E Downs

Contrary to what those who want to cut our societal benefits would have us believe, we are not living longer. Only the rich are living longer. Eugene E Downs

Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. As Bin Laden, so Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, Savage, Limbaugh, et al. Eugene E Downs

Wealth is theft, private wealth robs common wealth, wealth for the few creates poverty for the many. Eugene E Downs

Never give in to Republicans. Republicans are bullies. And like a bully, if you give them your lunch money today, they will be back again tomorrow demanding not only your lunch money, but your allowance too. If the bully is stronger, take your beating if you must, get off the first punch if you can, but never give in to his demands. Eugene E Downs

What is good for the parasite is bad for the host. What is good for Wall St. is bad for the country. Eugene E Downs

To apply labels like socialism and liberalism to the policies of the current Democratic party is to degrade the definitions of those terms and to pull their meaning ever more rightward. To continue voting for such slippery creatures who would allow this slide presupposes that at the center of the political universe is an irresistible fascistic stasis to which even God herself must eventually accede, and that resistance is futile. Fascism is the center of nothing, certainly nothing good, and it is hardly some conceptual ideal of compromise. Fascism - and let us not kid ourselves, that is what is advocated by Republican voters these days - is more like a black hole: ever hungry and utterly destructive. Draw the line. Voting for the lesser of two evils, is voting for evil. I will vote no more for conservative Democrats. Nothing improves until we put a stop to this rightward slide. Eugene E Downs

Voting only legitimizes evil. You don't choose your leaders. Your leaders are chosen for you by the moneyed interests (corporations and rich individuals) that fund the necessary propaganda. You get a choice between devil A and devil B, both of whom represent the evil status quo (or worse). Voting only legitimizes, perpetuates and even strengthens an increasingly fascist system. Only after a substantial majority has recognized the futility of such an exercise and started organizing, will we actually get on with changing the system to serve the citizenry over the desires of the select few, who frankly have no loyalty to any group but their own pampered class. Eugene E Downs

The "free market" means that jobs will always move to the poorest person in the poorest country that can do the job. Eventually that leaves you and me here in the US with no job and no income, and no way to buy the products made by the poorest person in the poorest country. But in the early stages at least the rich do well with such a scheme, and the recently released poverty figures show the true obscenity of this destruction of the concept of the common good. Yes, in the end we are all dead. But some of us will end our days attended by a team of specialists after having lived near a century in luxury, and some of us will die hungry under a bridge, attended by rats. Right here in the land of plenty. Only an idiot can still believe the "free market" is good. Eugene E Downs

FDR saved capitalism by making it work for instead of against ordinary Americans. With a couple of notable exceptions, that situation has been largely reversed since Reagan. There is a danger, due to the polluted thinking that has taken hold of the public mind, that in reacting to this situation people will make things much worse. For example a flat tax or cutting taxes for all rather than raising them on the rich. Eugene E Downs

John Michael Greer Thoughts and Quotes

...I wasn't speaking of the breakdown of democracy; corruption and influence peddling is democracy. That's how democracy always works in the real world. John Michael Greer

What now passes under the name of libertarianism is a philosophy of privilege that could only look reasonable to people who are deliberately not paying attention to the benefits they get from the system they claim to despise. John Michael Greer

Theurgy is training and guiding your own biological and social drives; thaumaturgy is training and guiding other people's drives. John Michael Greer 9/28/11

The basic m.o. of mass thaumaturgy using binaries is to get people locked into a binary, and then pile on the emotional goads until they literally can't think clearly about anything. John Michael Greer

The whole point of a binary is that it doesn't get resolved. The two sides of a binary strengthen and solidify each other; when you want that effect, you use binary logic.... John Michael Greer

One of the things you learn early and often, if you study magic, is that personifying and fixating a lot of emotional energy on something -- any kind of emotional energy -- is one of the best ways to give it power. ... Have you noticed, by the way, that every time [Rick] Perry does a pray-in for rain, the drought in Texas gets worse? John Michael Greer

[It's] a common mistake made by people who are assigned the status of deviants -- trying to change their label to something acceptable. It never works; the more effective approach is to affirm the rejected label, the way African-Americans did half a century ago with "black" and gays more recently with "queer." Look into deviance theory in sociology one of these days and you'll see why it works. John Michael Greer

The end never justifies the means, because the means inevitably reshape the end in their own image. John Michael Greer on political manipulation

John Michael Greer on tax cuts producing jobs: ...and of course it hasn't occurred to them [several unemployed Republicans mentioned by an Archdruid Report commenter who insist that tax cuts produce jobs] to notice that the US has been cutting taxes for decades now -- we pay a small fraction of the taxes, corrected for inflation, that we paid in 1960 -- and every tax cut has been followed by further losses in jobs. Faith-based economics is not a good thing. John Michael Greer (Twilight of Meaning comments)

It's because of the US military and empire that people in the US get to use far more than their share of the world's resources and industrial products. When that empire goes down, around 80% of what's supporting your current standard of living is going to go away, and when the process ends you're going to be living in a politically fragmented and economically bankrupt Third World country that still happens to be called the United States of America. You will be much poorer than you are today -- quite possibily poor as in "how am I going to get enough to eat?" John Michael Greer (The Future That Wasn't comments)

I think our culture lost a resource of unsuspected importance when we stopped leaving a place among us for hermits and monks. Those who work in solitude also have their gifts to offer. John Michael Greer

Exergy is specifically the difference in energy concentration between the energy source and the local energy sink, and that's what measures the capacity to do work. JMG

My reinterpretation: Exergy is the measure of the difference in energy concentration between the source and whatever is absorbing that energy. It is a measurement of the capacity to do work. Gasoline has a high concentration or exergy, and therefore a high capacity for work. Sunlight (between the sun and Earth) has a very low concentration (exergy), and therefore a low capacity for work. John Michael Greer (and Eugene E Downs)

Taxes

Americans hate taxes with the passion of the truly infantile. David Michael Green

The Boston Tea party was not a protest against government or taxes. It was a protest against a huge private corporation that had been exempted from taxes in order to gain a competitive advantage against domestic suppliers. Unknown

Between 1950 and 1963, which were boom years, the top tax rate was 91%. Reagan lowered the top bracket to 80%. Now it's 35%. Warren Buffet pays 16%???

see above - Ronald Reagan is a hero to conservatives because he was against raising taxes and big government… even though he raised taxes 11 times, doubled the national debt (didn't he triple it?), and tripled the size of government. (check this) Unknown

Libertarianism

The best rap on libertarians isn't that they're racist, or selfish. (Though some of them are those things, and their beliefs encourage both bad behaviors, even if accidentally.) It's that they're thoroughly out of touch with reality. It's a worldview that prospers only so long as nobody tries it, and is too unreflective and self-absorbed to realize this. Gabriel Winant

Tell the libertarians there's no such thing as free will (that is, the variables of which human behavior is a function lie in the environment, not inside the individual organism itself) and therefore their whole ideology is wrong. Rob Pritchard

Capitalism and the Free Market

Capitalism is dead but we still dance with the corpse. Joe Bageant

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Winston Churchill

A society run by the market isn't a democracy. The market's like fire. Constrain it, harness it, and it'll provide you with warmth and light and heat for your cooking. Let it rip, and it'll destroy everything you hold dear. Billy Bragg

Post-Industrial, End of Empire

Ronald Wright in A Short History of Progress, his investigation into why civilizations collapse:

“The concentration of power at the top of large-scale societies gives the elite a vested interest in the status quo; they continue to prosper in darkening times long after the environment and general populace begin to suffer.”

From 'America, Land of the Free to Be Stupid' by Elizabeth Wurtzel:

What people are angry about, if they only knew it, is that social mobility in the US is over and their economic future screwed. The honest and awful truth: the United States is a post-industrial empire in decline.

Socialism and Fascism

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. FDR

Nazis outlawed unions, made abortion illegal, put jews and homosexuals into concentration camps. They were mad as hatters at a tea party. And rich American Republicans, notably GW Bush's grandfather, gave them money and even belonged to the Nazi party.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. Winston Churchill

Socialism is organized compassion. Billy Bragg

Neoliberalism has been called a philosophy of “possessive individualism.” Historian Richard Hofstadter called it “beneficent cupidity” or the notion that “greed is good,” in more modern parlance. It embodies Social Darwinism — survival of the fittest — which sees society, as C.B. MacPherson said, as a mass of competing “dissociated individuals.”

Aldous Huxley predicted today's pharmaceutical society: "[I]t seems to me perfectly in the cards," he said, "that there will be within the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude."

Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism. Senator Huey Long

Brother's keeper:

A saying from the Bible's story of Cain and Abel. After Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God asked him where his brother was. Cain answered, “I know not; am I my brother's keeper?”

Cain's words have come to symbolize people's unwillingness to accept responsibility for the welfare of their fellows — their “brothers” in the extended sense of the term. The tradition of Judaism and Christianity is that people do have this responsibility. (See Good Samaritan, Love thy neighbor as thyself, and Love your enemies.)

World population is approaching seven billion, with about 30,000 people starving to death each day.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted after the Second World War, promised "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood."

Liberalism and Conservatism

So now having lost their country, conservatives, like the petulant schoolchildren they so often resemble, want to pick up their marbles and go home. As far as I’m concerned, they lost their marbles a long time ago. Unknown

Fox News

Fox was denied a license to broadcast in Canada. Why? Because Canadian media outlets are forced-by law-to tell the truth. Unknown

This is the kind of journalism that belongs in papers that have headlines proclaiming "I had Jesus' baby and now that he's a toddler I can't give him a bath because he keeps walking on the water!" Unknown

South Carolina

The Second Amendment was put in the Bill of Rights because South Carolina would not have ratified the Constitution without it. They wanted to make sure they could keep their guns in order to control their slaves. Unknown

A South Carolina political observer said that the state is too small to be its own country and too big to be an insane asylum.

The Second Amendment

Protest Signs

Without justice what is sovereignty but organized robbery? Saint Augustine

Dear 1%, we fell asleep for awhile. Just woke up. Sencerely, the 99%

If you don't understand why we're here, but you can name all of the Kardashians, it is time to turn off the TV and PAY ATTENTION!

I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.

The 1% got rich riding on my back.

America isn't broke, it's broken.

Due to recent budget cuts, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

I can't afford my own politician, so I made this sign.

Global revolution: too big to fail.

Support the re-generation.

Promote the general welfare, not corporate welfare.

I am not your ATM.

Capitalism is organized crime.

The police are tools of the rich.

We are not hippie slackers. We are "the people".

THESE are citizens united.

Revolution is inevitable. Why not now?

Can you hear me now?

Gene Downs' Protest Signs

I don't want to say I told you so, but...

Did you know there are guillotine plans on the internet?

Tar and feathers: still made in America.

There's no problem here that can't be solved with pitchforks and torches.

Reagan was an idiot.

These boots were made for marchin'!

We will build a wall between gov't and corporations.

Now is the time for all good (wo)men to come to the aid of their country.

No more hoping, get off your ass and change this shit.

No more hoping, get off your ass, let's change this shit.

I've been waiting 30 years for this. I WILL NOT LOSE.

No home, no phone, no motor car, not a single luxury. And nothing left to lose, motherfucker.

Bring the troops home.

Bring the jobs home.

Bring the truth home.

Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.

850 American military bases on foreign soil. There's your problem. (check this)

The System Isn't 'Broken' - It Was Built This Way.I think, therefore I am ... not a Republican.

Gene Downs' Bumper Sticker Slogans

Slower traffic keep right. Vote Democrat.

Does this ass make my ass look big?

If corporations really were "legal persons"

Wal-Mart would be in jail.

Bush: Confident, determined and WRONG!

To call George Bush the devil is an insult ... to the devil.

Gene Downs' Band Names:

Every Verb in the English Language

Collide-O-Scope

...and the Nameless Nobodies

...and the Abysmals

The Brain Washers

Freckled Horde

Mermen of the Congaree

Splendid Blond Beast

The Blood Thirsty Mosquitos

The Precious Few

My Angelic Future

Hell's House Band

The Great Spectacular

Seven Deadly Sinners

Betty Fjord something

And The Shower Singers

Empire of the something

Flannel Stampede

Lawnmower Cult

Fat Eddie and The Filthies

The Deep 6

Darlings of the Dogpound

Bubble Magic

Crusty Coots

Petrified Woody and the Fossils

Uber 'Tard

The Cockeyed something

The Irrational Order of something

The Unruly something

Congaree Swamp Monster

Teacup tarantulas

legendary north american forest ape

Free Range Willies

Half-Man/Half-Assed

Cane Sugar Conspiracy

Briar Patch Barbie

The Grave Dancers

The Rockin' Doublewides

Wizards of the Trailerpark

The Other-Worlders

Giant Chicken People

The Hootchie Kootchie Men

(The) Abner Bodean(s)

Chuck Norris Cinema

Maxi-lad

Knocked Up Papas

The Effin' Effers

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF)

The Kinetic Infestation of Youth

something fever

Spotzilla

Adorable Li'l Nazis

That Rosy Inflammation

Unvarnished Ruth

Swamp Witch

Ten Foot Polecat

Cain T. Duit and the Nevercoulds

Loblolly Polly and the Knotty Pines

Squirt Johnson and the Embarrassing Itch

Princess Geofrey and the Ungodly Louds

Mourning Has Broken

The Electric Lawnmower Cult

Barbecue Bob and The New Electric Lawnmower Cult

Big Pink Toad

Bobby Boozer and the Nekids

The Snake Oilers

This Year's Blond

The Flaming Gravy Boats

Tater

Hog Theory

Rhythm Vendor

Psychophonic

Moonpie Johnny

Pork Princess

20 Mule Team Borat

Tinhorn something

Psychic Fiends

Triumph of the...

Itchy Peters and the Simplex

Love in the Time of Calories

Thursday, December 15, 2011