#politics

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

Leaders that wear the largest hats have few armies to attack a land so this leads them to be sly and cunning as they extend their hand. ↗

— Stanley Victor Paskavich

#religion

London is one of the world's centres of Arab journalism and political activism. The failure of left and right, the establishment and its opposition, to mount principled arguments against clerical reaction has had global ramifications. Ideas minted in Britain – the notion that it is bigoted to oppose bigotry; 'Islamophobic' to oppose clerics whose first desire is to oppress Muslims – swirl out through the press and the net to lands where they can do real harm. ↗

— Nick Cohen

#arabs #bigotry #britain #islam #islamism

Morality did not begin by one man saying to another, "I will not hit you if you do not hit me"; there is no trace of such a transaction. There IS a trace of both men having said, "We must not hit each other in the holy place. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#religion #men

Washington politicians basically view the People as a capricious and dangerous enemy, a dumb mob whose only interesting quality happens to be their power to take away politicians' jobs... When the government sees its people as the enemy, sooner or later that feeling gets to be mutual. And that's when the real weirdness begins. ↗

— Matt Taibbi

#elected-officials #government #politics #religion

It strikes me often while I am in Iran that were Christian evangelicals to take a tour of Iran today, they might find it the model for an ideal society they seek in America. Replace Allah with God, Mohammad with Jesus, keep the same public and private notions of chastity, sin, salvation, and God's will, and a Christian Republic is born. ↗

— Hooman Majd

#irony #politics #religion #religion

The law is so complex and voluminous that no one, not even the most knowledgeable lawyer, can understand it all. Moreover, lawyers and legal scholars have not gone out of their way to make the law accessible to the ordinary person. Just the opposite: Legal professionals, like the priests of some obscure religion, too often try to keep the law mysterious and inaccessible. ↗

— Jay Feinman

#law #lawyers #order #politics #society