Quotes About Participation

In the version of democracy that we are all used to, every five years or so we enter a voting booth and choose a politician from the mostly narrow choice of political parties presented to us in general elections. We then let the victor get on with ruling over us until the next time the parties want our votes.

In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

There is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.

You can be at certain parties and not really be there.

My own plan for the coming fourteen months is to knock on doors and stuff envelopes. Maybe even to wear a button. To try to accrete with others into a demographically significant mass. To try extra hard to exercise patience, politeness, and imagination on those with whom I disagree. Also to floss more.

las democracias verdaderas se esfuerzan por integrar a las mayorías a unos modelos de educación, de salud, de higiene, de construcción de rituales compartidos

We served the imperative of history as specks of dust in the whirlwind and were privileged to participate in the end of our world.

It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.

Over time, a subtle cancer spread: where you have more experts, you create more bystanders. Professionals did all the fighting and fixing we used to handle ourselves; they even took over our fun, playing our sports while we sat back and watched.

but if you're smart you don't hold up your hand in class and ask to be called on.

I wanted you to thank you for being my friend and letting me play a part in your story.

Everybody's business is nobody's business, and nobody's business is my business.

In politics women type the letters, lick the stamps, distribute the pamphlets and get out the vote. Men get elected.

I want everyone to vote. I want everyone to be a part of electing officials. Because when we are not a part, when we don't have a very broad voter base, then we don't have true representation.

Time Warner has called and they want us all back on the couch, just consuming — not producing, not sharing — and we should say, 'No.'

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

Dippers' are those who dig in into different issues and make commentaries without actually doing anything to resolve issues.

Democracy is even more important for what it prevents than for what it provides.

Students don't learn by being lectured at; then learn by thinking hard, solving problems and dissecting proofs.

What the recent physiology of the senses has shown by the way of experience is what Kant had tried to show for the representations of the human mind in general when he laid out the participation of the particular, built-in rules of the mind, the organization of the mind as it were, in our representations.

There are far too many men in politics and not enough elsewhere.

By making the choice to stay you are participating in a crime.

Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly.

Eres como una historia que aún no ha sucedido. Quiero comprobar qué harás. Quiero participar en el desarrollo de la narración.