Quotes About Authoritarianism

Not being able or willing to put yourself in someone else's shoes—to view life differently from how you yourself experience it—is the first step toward being not empathic, and this is why so many progressive movements become as rigid and as authoritarian as the institutions they're resisting.

A growing proportion of smart and honest Christians of each new generation will abandon the sinking ship, just as they have been doing for centuries in Europe and decades in the United States. In the not-too-distant future, Christianity will only exist in those enclaves where authoritarian leaders rule over submissive flocks who enfold their religious lives within the assumptions of the first axial age.

the supreme value of all authoritarians: winning, by concentrating power in the hands of their group and its supreme leader.

You may be frustrated to see how susceptible to authoritarianism people in these early stages are, especially because, as C. S. Lewis famously quipped, they may be as willing to kill for their faith as die for it.

For those who regress, the fear of what lies beyond Complexity feels so terrifying, or the sense of belonging that is often found in strict Stage One communities feels so alluring, that they willingly resubmit to Stage One authority, or even authoritarianism.

Since many Christians see God as an absolute authoritarian, we shouldn't be surprised when they prefer authoritarian leaders to democratic ones.

I spoke the language that had pronounced the sentences that had killed their grandfathers and sent their grandmothers to the world's first concentration camps

Herra ja ylhäisyys kanapaistia päivisin söi ja nättien tyttöjen kanssa iltaisin leikkiä löi

liberalism defines government as tyrant father but demands it behave as nurturant mother.

Bernal believed discipline was essential for revolution. Wiley, of course, believed just the opposite.

I remind myself that madmen really exist. Sometimes they achieve the highest levels of political power in modern industrial nations.

Minha alegria de ensinar foi repetidamente frustrada por diretores com características militares.

A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.

The liberal state has no view on whether witchcraft is more valuable than all-in wrestling. Like a tactful publican, it has as few opinions as possible. Many liberals suspect passionate convictions are latently authoritarian. But liberalism should surely be a passionate conviction. Liberals are not necessarily lukewarm. Only the more macho leftist suspects that they have no balls. You can be ardently neutral, and fiercely indifferent.

Because, Richard, many people must be ruled to thrive. In their selfishness and greed, they see free people as their oppressors.

Tyranny cannot endure forever. By its very nature it rots everything it rules, including itself.

I heard the Empire has a tyrannical and repressive government! What form of government is that? said Ponder Stibbons. A tautology, said the Dean, from above.

When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.

Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality.

criminals more readily than any other State would do, till the time comes

Political correctness is often the attempt to make sentimentality socially obligatory or legally enforceable.

One can only imagine how Iranians or Afghans would deal with unelected judges moving to de-Islamicize their nations.

Hate numbs the judgment, paralyzes the vitals of democracy.

Domestically, a lot of people think Xi Jinping is becoming Mao Zedong. By giving Hong Kong democracy, people would look at them as enlightened leaders.