#politics

terrorism n. Violence for political purposes or the politically motivated threat of violence which, either intentionally or unintentionally, challenges the state's monopoly on political violence. ↗

— Leslie Starr O'Hara

#politics #satire #wit #motivational

The people who explain politics for a living – the politicians themselves, their advisers, the media who cover them – love to reach conclusions like this one. Elections are decided by charismatic personalities, strategic maneuvers, the power of rhetoric, the zeitgeist of the political moment. The explainers cloak themselves in loose-fitting theories because they offer a narrative comfort, unlike the more honest acknowledgment that elections hinge on the motivations of millions of individual human beings and their messy, illogical, and often unknowable psychologies. ↗

— Sasha Issenberg

#politics #love

But what a way to do things-never to perform a decent action until you are kicked into it and the rest of the world has ceased to believe that your motives can possibly be honest. ↗

— George Orwell

#politics #motivational

Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama's running so we all can fly. ↗

— Jay-Z

#election #music #obama #politics #usa

The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said "This is mine," and found people naïve enough to believe him, that man was the true founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#inequality #politics #nature

All empires become arrogant. It is their nature. ↗

— Edward Rutherfurd

#politics-observation #nature

Das Bild vom Wirtschaftsgeschehen als einem Wettlauf oder Wettkampf ist in seinen Details etwas verschwommen, doch es scheint, als hätte es als Wettlauf kein Ziel und deshalb kein natürliches Ende. Das einzige Ziel des Wettläufers ist es, die Führung zu übernehmen und zu behalten. Die Frage, warum das Leben wie ein Wettlauf sein muss oder warum die Volkswirtschaften einen Wettlauf gegeneinander veranstalten müssen, statt kameradschaftlich der Gesundheit zuliebe miteinander zu joggen, wird nicht gestellt. Ein Wettlauf, ein Wettkampf - so ist es eben. Wir gehören von Natur aus zu verschiedenen Nationen; von Natur aus stehen Nationen in Konkurrenz zu anderen Nationen. Wir sind, wie uns die Natur geschaffen hat. Die Welt ist ein Dschungel [...], und im Dschungel konkurrieren alle Arten mit allen anderen Arten um Raum und Nahrung. ↗

— J.M. Coetzee

#nations #politics #nature

For four centuries now, the American people have resigned themselves to natural disasters and acts of God: floods, prairie fires, blizzards, tornados, hurricanes, dust bowls, epidemics, academics, lawyers, and politicians. ↗

— Markham Shaw Pyle

#american-history #politics #nature

I discovered that Human Nature was not, as I had always supposed, a fixed and unalterable entity, that wars are not caused by a natural urge in men to fight, that ownership of land and factories is not necessarily the natural reward of greater wisdom and energy. ↗

— Jessica Mitford

#men

فقصة فرعون ليست حكاية تخص المصريين القدماء، بل نموذج يلزم محوه من حياة المصريين إلى الأبد. إن القرآن – فى منهج الجماعة – لا يلعن فرعون الميت منذ ثلاثة آلاف سنة، بل يلعن فرعون الحي، الذي يتناول إفطاره هذا الصباح فى قلعة عسكرية سرق نفقاتها من مال الناس العام، وسط حراسة مشددة من سيافين محترفين، يدفع رواتبهم من مال الناس نفسه. ↗

— النيهوم

#religion #religion