Listen, this whole system of yours could be on fire and I couldn’t even turn on the kitchen tap without filling out a twenty-seven B stroke six . . . bloody paperwork.
Harry Tuttle, a character in Brazil (1985) played by Robert De Niro. Film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown.
The fundamental maxim of free men is to live in love towards our actions, and to let live in the understanding of the other person’s will.
Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom: A Modern Philosophy of Life Developed by Scientific Methods (1916), Chapter Nine.
How come all these other countries got better ‘Donald Trumps’ than we did?
Bridget Phetasy concluding her coverage of President Elect Javier of Argentina, on “Two Americas, One Cup,” the 130th episode of her podcast Dumpster Fire (December 3, 2023).
There is no security of property, where a despotic authority can possess itself of the property of the subject against his consent. Neither is there such security, where the consent is merely nominal and delusive.
Jean-Baptiste Say, A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Chapter XIV.
Terrifying the population is what our government does best, and most avidly. Officials regularly gin up irrational fears about COVID, or “white supremacy,” or Vladimir Putin — or a dozen other topics as part of a pretty obvious control strategy. It’s not as if these people mind scaring you; they want to scare you. And they do it every day.
Tucker Carlson, Tucker on X, Ep. 42 (November 29, 2023).
The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.
The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one.
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), p. 6.
Um, as, uh, I think it was President Reagan said, “We’re from the Government; we’re here to help.”
Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education, Western Governors Association, Nov. 8, 2023. For context, see Snopes.com.
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, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Part 1, Chapter Seven.
A very great deal more truth can become known than can be proven.
Richard Feynman, “The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics,” Nobel Lecture (December 11, 1965).
The columns of figures set out in governmental economic plans express claims to economic powers that are only imaginary. But belief in such powers may be induced by carrying out with great emphasis some fairly extensive economic policies — which cause a certain amount of stress and strain — and pretending that you are thereby putting into effect your economic plan, with all its figures.
Michael Polanyi, The Logic of Liberty: Reflections and Rejoinders (1951), p. 137.