#democracy

Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. ↗

— Harry Emerson Fosdick

#conviction #democracy #extraordinary #ordinary #ordinary people

Violent ideologies speak their own language; core concepts are translated to maintain the system while appearing to support the people. Under carnism, for instance, democracy has become defined as having the freedom to choose among products that sicken our bodies and pollute our planet, rather than the freedom to eat our food and breathe our air without the risk of being poisoned. But violent ideologies are inherently undemocratic, as they rely on deception, secrecy, concentrated power, and coercion--all practices that are incompatible with a free society. While the larger system, or nation, may appear democratic, the violent system within it is not. This is one reason we don't recognize violent ideologies that exist within seemingly democratic systems; we simply aren't thinking to look for them. ↗

— Melanie Joy

#democracy #freedom-of-choice #violent-ideologies #food

Democracy divides people into workers and loafers. It makes no provision for those who have no time to work. ↗

— Karl Kraus

#divides #into #makes #people #provision

You don't spread democracy through the barrel of a gun. ↗

— Helen Thomas

#democracy #gun #spread #through #you

The majority of the world's Muslims do not believe that terrorism is a legitimate strategy or that Islam is incompatible with democracy. ↗

— Gijs de Vries

#democracy #incompatible #islam #legitimate #majority

I told the students that we can exert pressure without resorting to violence, and that we can move towards democracy without violence; that way, God will allow it. ↗

— Abdurrahman Wahid

#democracy #exert #god #i #move

We see the tendency in the world to criticise democracy and sometimes even to say that authoritarian countries like China are more efficient. That is very short-sighted. China looks efficient only because it can sacrifice most people's rights. This is not something the west should be happy about. ↗

— Ai Weiwei

#authoritarian #be happy #because #china #countries

The American polity is infected with a serious imbalance of power between elites and masses, a power which is the principal threat to our democracy. ↗

— Paul Wellstone

#balance of power #between #democracy #elites #imbalance

But if we had to trade with a Europe dominated by the present German trade policies, we might have to change our methods to some totalitarian form. This is a prospect that any lover of democracy must view with consternation. ↗

— Wendell Willkie

#change #consternation #democracy #dominated #europe

A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it. ↗

— Frank Lloyd Wright

#america #call #democracy #else #enslave