#totalitarianism

What I'm saying is simply that every totalitarian society, no matter how strict, has had its underground. In fact, two undergrounds. There's the underground involved in political resistance and the underground involved in preserving beauty and fun--which is to say, preserving the human spirit. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#still-life-with-woodpecker #tom-robbins #totalitarianism #beauty

The real struggle for us is for the citizen to cease to be the property of the state. ↗

— Adam Michnik

#human-rights #politics #totalitarianism #freedom

In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then? ↗

— George Orwell

#perspective #totalitarianism #experience

It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism. ↗

— Noam Chomsky

#fascism #freedom #society #stalinism #totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is patriotism institutionalized. ↗

— Steve Allen

#patriotism #totalitarianism

Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda. ↗

— Hannah Arendt

#elite #itself #masses #mob #momentum

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--forever. ↗

— George Orwellll

#injustice #totalitarianism #imagination

It will be a war of national liberation. We believe the people reject totalitarianism. ↗

— Ahmed Chalabi

#liberation #national #people #reject #totalitarianism

Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff. ↗

— Stephen Harper

#basic #commissions #democratic #democratic society #evolving

Having lived through the transition from totalitarianism, I am acutely mindful of the need to never take for granted the basic freedoms of thought, expression and belief that democracy brings. ↗

— Daisaku Ikeda

#am #basic #belief #brings #democracy