It's him not me, right? So it's off to war we go

Here are two quotes that concern enemies, outer and inner, one from Eric Fromm, one from Mohandas Gandhi. You may think they are diametrically opposed to my previous post's content below about Memorial Day and how we celebrate it...and you'd be right:

"Another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one's own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard - every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals, which they serve." Eric Fromm

(Fromm describes a basic tenet of propagandizing the people of a nation into accepting war through use of an emotionally rationalized agenda of double standards and the human trait of projecting onto others what we're desperate to deny within ourselves. ID the monsters!)


"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty and democracy?" Mohandas Gandhi.

(Indeed. It makes no difference whatsoever. jc)

Orwell defines 'political language'

"Political language...is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

George Orwell

"The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people."

Frank Kent

~:~

Quotes compliments of the excellent news source Information Clearing House Newsletter: do subscribe now!

'better to trust the many'

"Only a large-scale popular movement toward decentralization and self-help can arrest the present tendency toward statism...A really efficienttotalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers." Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) Author; Forward to 'Brave New World', 1932

". . .government is instituted for the protection, safety, and happiness ofthe people, and not for profit, honour, or private interest of any man, family, or class of men...the origin of all power is in the people, and they have an incontestable right to check the creatures of their own creation, vested with certain powers to guard the life, liberty and property of the community..." Mercy Otis Warren 1728-1814, poet, historian, patriot, and advocate of the Bill of Rights

"I would be better to trust the many than the few, who are infected with the plague of self-interest and selfishness." Tom Paine (1737-1809) from "The Rights of Man".

Parade of Quotes compliments of Information Clearing House.

War is all hell

Here's a famous quote that merits repeating:

"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. Some of these young men think that war is all glory but let me say war is all hell."

William Tecumseh Sherman

Quote compliments of Information Clearing House