#revolution

Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread. ↗

— Jennifer Donnelly

#history #kings #presidents #revolution #president

Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief. ↗

— Frantz Fanon

#politics #psychology #revolution #ignorance

Processions, meetings, military parades, lectures, waxwork displays, film shows, telescreen programs all had to be organized; stands had to be erected, effigies built, slogans coined, songs written, rumours circulated, photographs faked. ↗

— George Orwell

#orwell #russian-revolution #satire #satire

Anarchy is like custard cooking over a flame; it has to be constantly stirred or it sticks and gets heavy, like government. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#cuba #government #passivity #revolution #anarchy

Critical pessimists, such as media critics Mark Crispin Miller, Noam Chomsky, and Robert McChesney, focus primarily on the obstacles to achieving a more democratic society. In the process, they often exaggerate the power of big media in order to frighten readers into taking action. I don't disagree with their concern about media concentration, but the way they frame the debate is self-defeating insofar as it disempowers consumers even as it seeks to mobilize them. Far too much media reform rhetoric rests on melodramatic discourse about victimization and vulnerability, seduction and manipulation, "propaganda machines" and "weapons of mass deception". Again and again, this version of the media reform movement has ignored the complexity of the public's relationship to popular culture and sided with those opposed to a more diverse and participatory culture. The politics of critical utopianism is founded on a notion of empowerment; the politics of critical pessimism on a politics of victimization. One focuses on what we are doing with media, and the other on what media is doing to us. As with previous revolutions, the media reform movement is gaining momentum at a time when people are starting to feel more empowered, not when they are at their weakest. ↗

— Henry Jenkins

#media-studies #optimism #revolution #pessimism

The smartphone revolution is under-hyped, more people have access to phones than access to running water. We've never had anything like this before since the beginning of the planet. ↗

— Marc Andreessen

#anything #before #beginning #had #like

Companies in every industry need to assume that a software revolution is coming. ↗

— Marc Andreessen

#coming #companies #every #industry #need

I trust that the president will try, just give it one more shot, some revolutionary way of not doing this, of bringing all those kids back home safely. ↗

— F. Murray Abraham

#bringing #doing #give #home #i

For then only will you be strong, when you cherish the laws, and when the revolutionary attempts of lawless men shall have ceased. ↗

— Aeschines

#be strong #ceased #cherish #lawless #laws

In the final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American people who make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population. ↗

— Lin Biao

#american #american people #analysis #asian #cause