#public

As the nation divided into Federalists and Republicans, each group called the other the worst name possible: "party". Most Americans feared the idea of party; believing that a society should unite to achieve the public good, they denounced parties as groups of ambitious men selfishly competing for power. Worse, parties were danger signals for a republic; if parties dominated a republic's politics, its days were numbered. ↗

— R.B. Bernstein

#parties #politics #republic #men

I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'. ↗

— Ronald Reagan

#amount #been #cat #contributor #democratic

…money and honour have no attraction for them; good men do not wish to be openly demanding payment for governing and so to get the name of hirelings, nor by secretly helping themselves out of the public revenues to get the name of thieves. And not being ambitious they do not care about honour. Wherefore necessity must be laid upon them, and they must be induced to serve from the fear of punishment. And this, as I imagine, is the reason why the forwardness to take office, instead of waiting to be compelled, has been deemed dishonourable. Now the worst part of the punishment is that he who refuses to rule is liable to be ruled by one who is worse than himself. And the fear of this, as I conceive, induces the good to take office, not because they would, but because they cannot help — not under the idea that they are going to have any benefit or enjoyment themselves, but as a necessity, and because they are not able to commit the task of ruling to any one who is better than themselves, or indeed as good. For there is reason to think that if a city were composed entirely of good men, then to avoid office would be as much an object of contention as to obtain office is at present… ↗

— Socrates

#plato #republic #imagination

Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture. ↗

— Allen Ginsberg

#public-opinion #influence

I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers to care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic -- it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor. ↗

— John Taylor Gatto

#public-education #education

Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons and ribbons. ↗

— Frank Zappa

#republicans #greed

Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong. ↗

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

#conservatives #democrats #extremism #liberalism #liberals

It is morally appalling for the so called liberators of South Sudan to keep liberating their own people from a war that has already been won. ↗

— Duop Chak Wuol

#morality #republic #war #liberalism

There are so many more important things to worry about than how you're perceived by strangers. ↗

— Dennis Lehane

#public-opinion #self-esteem #self-esteem

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority. ↗

— George Bancroft

#best #development #few #free #government