Quotes About Authoritarianism

Political correctness is just tyranny with manners. I wish for you the courage to be unpopular. Popularity is history's pocket change. Courage is history's true currency.

Orthodoxy whether of the right or of the left is the graveyard of creativity.

It is important for us to realize that emphasis on conformity and the fear of spontaneous living can have an effect almost as devastating as the totalitarian's deliberate assault on the mind . . . . Trained into conformity the child may well grow up into an adult who welcomes with relief the authoritarian demands of a totalitarian leader. It is the welcome repetition of an old pattern that can be followed without investment of a new emotional energy.14

We are not a people with a revolutionary or an insurrectionary tradition. The War of Independence, while it borrowed the rhetoric of revolution, replaced a foreign oligarchy with a native, slaveholding oligarchy.

Corporate totalitarianism, for me, is interchangeable with inverted totalitarianism, as Wolin uses that term throughout his book.

The demagogue, who is always an idiote, is not a freak or social mutation. The demagogue expresses the society's zeitgeist.

Public crises, particularly those concerning life and death, offer demagogues ample opportunity to amass more power.

stability of government and dependability of laws which attracted foreigners.

The Soviet failure revealed itself much more gradually: it was a pathological inability to experiment. The

Ryan asked, "Is there any economist in the world who correlates Russia's increased authoritarianism with their increased economic growth?" Helen Glass thought for a moment. "Sure, you can find some who will say just that, but remember, there were economists predicting the fall of capitalism and the rise of world communism, even in the eighties." Jack laughed. "Good point. You can always find an expert to confirm your belief, no matter how ridiculous.

open societies will once again be urged to close in upon themselves, sacrificing freedom for 'security'.

Why does this matter? Because—as the Greeks knew—participation in the way you are governed not only heightens a collective sense of responsibility for the things government does, it also keeps our rulers honest and holds authoritarian excess at bay.

two world wars had habituated almost everyone to the inevitability of government intervention in daily life.

When the police become criminals, slavery can take root.

Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you listen to a speech by the Great Leader and the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of anger, you are done for.

Comprising 13 percent of the electorate, African Americans stood as the firewall between a democracy continuing to evolve and one threatened by the corrosion of a Trump presidency tainted with the "drip, drip, drip of scandal," ethics violations, foreign intrigue, and authoritarianism.

Seeing disagreement as disloyalty is another hallmark of demagogues, dictators, and strong-arm leaders.

In contrast to status quo conservatism, authoritarianism is primarily driven not by aversion to change (difference over time) but by aversion to complexity (difference across space). In a nutshell, authoritarians are "simple-minded avoiders of complexity more than closed-minded avoiders of change" (Stenner 2009b: 193).

in the event of an "authoritarian revolution," authoritarians may seek massive social change in pursuit of greater oneness and sameness, willingly overturning established institutions and practices that their (psychologically) conservative peers would be drawn to defend and preserve.

If manipulation really does increase welfare, then it would seem to be justified and even mandatory on ethical grounds.

During humanity's transition to democracy, let he who is without authoritarianism cast the first drone.

the definition of fascism is: a police state wherein the political ascendancy is tied into and protects the interests of the upper class—characterized by militarism, racism, and imperialism),

I don't consider Americans bullies, but I do consider the American government bullying.

Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.