Politics

I will not serve that in which I no
longer believe, whether it calls
itself my home, my fatherland, or
my church: and I will try to
express myself in some mode of life
or art as freely as I can and as
wholly as I can, using for my
defence the only arms I allow
myself to use -- silence, exile,
and cunning.

Listen, Peaches, trickery is what
humans are all about," said the
voice of Maurice. "They're so
keen on tricking one another all
the time that they elect
governments to do it for them.

His sentences didn't seem to
have any verbs, which was par for a
politician. All nouns, no action...

Because we’ve been lied to
and lied to, and it hurts to be
lied to. It’s ultimately just
about that complicated: it hurts.
It denies you respect for yourself,
for the liar, for the world.
Especially if the lies are chronic,
systemic, if hard experience seems
to teach that everything
you’re supposed to believe
in’s really a game based on
lies. Young Voters have been taught
well and thoroughly. You may not
personally remember Vietnam or
Watergate, but it’s a good
bet you remember ‘No new
taxes’ and ‘Out of the
loop’ and ‘No direct
knowledge of any impropriety at
this time’ and Did not
inhale’ and ‘Did not
have sex with that woman’...
It’s depressing and painful
to believe that the would-be
‘public servants’
you’re forced to choose
between are all phonies whose only
real concern is their own care and
feeding and who will lie so
outrageously with such a straight
face that you just know they have
to believe you’re an idiot.
So who wouldn’t fall all over
themselves for a top politician who
actually seemed to talk to you like
you were a person, an intelligent
adult worthy of respect?

The greatest patriotism is to tell
your country when it is behaving
dishonourably, foolishly,
viciously.

The major problem—one of the
major problems, for there are
several—one of the many major
problems with governing people is
that of whom you get to do it; or
rather of who manages to get people
to let them do it to them. To
summarize: it is a well-known fact
that those people who must want to
rule people are, ipso facto, those
least suited to do it. To
summarize the summary: anyone who
is capable of getting themselves
made President should on no account
be allowed to do the job.

When conservative judges strike
down laws, it's because of
what's in the Constitution.
When liberal judges strike down
laws (or impose new laws), it's
because of what's in the New
York Times.

So no, I’m not too big on
religion...and not very fond of
politics or economics either...And
why should I be? They are the
man-created trinity of terrors that
ravages the earth and deceives
those I care about. What mental
turmoil and anxiety does any human
face that is not related to one of
those three?

Empires do not suffer emptiness of
purpose at the time of their
creation. It is when they have
become established that aims are
lost and replaced by vague ritual.

Since mankind's dawn, a handful
of oppressors have accepted the
responsibility over our lives that
we should have accepted for
ourselves. By doing so, they took
our power. By doing nothing, we
gave it away. We've seen where
their way leads, through camps and
wars, towards the slaughterhouse.