Quote From a Book

Every tyrant from Mao to Peron rules in the name of the people; his claim does not lessen their suffering.

~~from The Deadline: Essays by Jill Lepore
 

...{O}nly unity among members of the working classes--regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or religion--will ever stand a chance of winning a fairer world.

~~from Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
 

"...{P}rivate charity cannot solve systemic problems. A government program usually can't pick and choose its recipients — everyone who meets the criteria gets help...Private benefactors, on the other hand, can pick and choose whom they help, based on their own biases. We're better off with programs that help everybody who needs them."

~~from "The Real Reason Why We Want to Punish the Unhoused" by Charlie Jane Anders, buttondown.email/charliejane/archive/the-real-reason-we-want-to-punish-the-unhoused/, 12/27/23
 
The “control of nature” is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man…It is our alarming misfortune that so primitive a science has armed itself with the most modern and terrible weapons, and that in turning them against the insects it has also turned them against the earth.

~~from Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
 
People forget about microbes. They are small and so people think they are irrelevant. This is arrogance. It is the bacteria and the microscopic life forms that make environments what they are, that make species look how they look, that guide evolution and set the playing field for complex life. If we want answers to anything, we must always look at them.

~~from Ascension by Nicholas Binge
 
There are…humans who would not care if every tree in the world were cut down…Their prime motivation is money, or jobs…because money and jobs buy votes or power. If wiping out forests means jobs and room for more people, they will wipe out the forests. If killing [non-human] animals means jobs and more room for people, they will drive the animals to extinction. [Non-human a]nimals and forests do not vote. These destroyers care only that more room and more jobs be made available to accommodate the ever increasing number of people they encourage to be born, because an ever increasing population fuels our economic system…They worry only that they be allowed to live out their own lives in power and comfort.

~~from The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper

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When democracy is not burning well, poetry burns harder. Literature becomes dangerous, independent bookstores are bonfires that light the mind...In recent times, underground bookstores, writers, presses, have set flares for people's revolutions...[But] when autocracy or fascism descends...[on a country], literature and bookstores and booksellers are the first to go.

~~from "Balancing Acts" by Louise Erdrich in the anthology It Occurs to Me that I am America: New Stories and Art, ed. by Jonathan Santlofer
 
America is the wealthiest nation on earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves...Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.

~~from Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
 
The thing no one understands, when your parent abandons you, is that it doesn't happen just once. They leave every day, every moment that you remember them is a door slamming shut in your face. And with every slam, you believe--a little more each time--that you probably deserved it.

~~from Leave No Trace: A Novel by Mindy Mejia
 
"...{M}ost small towns are every bit as tied to the whims of industrial c@pitalism as cities."
~~from "The Burbs Have Eyes" by Jake Maynard, thebaffler.com, 3/13/2024
 
...[N]othing in the world is truly owned. There is no tree or patch of soil or animal or mountain or river that grows a label naming its owner on its bark or on its flesh or through the strata of its rocks. Once upon a time “owning” meant “having a special duty to care” for something, not that you alone could have it or use it. “Owning” is invented…
~~from The Future by Naomi Alderman
 
{The nuclear family} was just that for me: nuclear--an atom bomb that annihilated my self, my worth, my confidence, and my identity.

~~from Insecure at Last: Losing it in Our Security Obsessed World by Eve Ensler
 
...{A} free press is our last defense against a criminal presidency.

~~from The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto by Jonathan Taplin
 
The conditions for democracy and art are one and the same.

~from The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto by Jonathan Taplin
 
officerripley said:
The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto by Jonathan Taplin
Click to expand...
That statement written in a book of that nature is quite interesting. Those billionaires have the means to create a vision of our future and use all the propaganda at their finger tips to flood the world with this fantasized future. It is already happening. The trends are to support those with all the money, so most related industries/companies are tied in to the same futuristic direction. Like it or not, that IS where we are headed.

Democratic is a loaded word for this "art" that they envision. The majority of citizens will have only choices that support the $$ trails. It is more like a plutocracy. So another way, and a way that seems more truthful is to say, "The conditions for plutocracy and propaganda are one and the same."
 
Paco Dennis said:
That statement written in a book of that nature is quite interesting. Those billionaires have the means to create a vision of our future and use all the propaganda at their finger tips to flood the world with this fantasized future. It is already happening. The trends are to support those with all the money, so most related industries/companies are tied in to the same futuristic direction. Like it or not, that IS where we are headed.

Democratic is a loaded word for this "art" that they envision. The majority of citizens will have only choices that support the $$ trails. It is more like a plutocracy. So another way, and a way that seems more truthful is to say, "The conditions for plutocracy and propaganda are one and the same."
Click to expand...
The book's author wasn't talking about the "'art' that they {the tech plutocrafts} envision", he was referring to real art. The author of the book is well aware of where we're heading and is warning against it; it's a really good book.
 
The issue of democracy and art and their relationship has been debated for centuries. They definitely are related and share many common attributes. Both democracy and art thrive in an environment where people are free to express themselves without fear of censorship or persecution.

Both democracy and art benefit from a diversity of perspectives and experiences, and are enriched by the contributions of people from all backgrounds.
Both democracy and art require a willingness to challenge established norms and conventions, and to experiment with new ideas and approaches.
Both democracy and art are collaborative endeavors, which require people to work together and compromise to achieve a shared vision.

The freedoms to express real art are "allowed" by democracy. I am pessimistic about the way big money is slowly taking away our individual freedoms. There could be a sort "Rock and Roll" revolution if things get to tight. :)
 
...{H}e and his war have never been about the right to bear arms; it is about his perceived right to violence, his privilege of violence. A man's privilege to enact violence on others as he sees fit, and what more expedient way than by the gun to enforce oppression and submission and fear, to lord over others, to dominate.

~~from Lilith by Eric Rickstad
 

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