Quotes About Oligarchy

It had long been realised that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly. The so-called 'abolition of private property' which took place in the middle years of the century meant, in effect, the concentration of property in far fewer hands than before: but with this difference, that the new owners were a group instead of a mass of individuals.

It had long been realised that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism.

the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living.

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-don inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life, imposed by the dead upon the living.

Somos diferentes de todas las oligarquías del pasado porque sabemos lo que estamos haciendo. Todos los demás, incluso los que se parecían a nosotros, eran cobardes o hipócritas. Los nazis alemanes y los comunistas rusos se acercaban mucho a nosotros por sus métodos, pero nunca tuvieron el valor de reconocer sus propios motivos.

Una revolución comienza con una amplia difusión de ideas de libertad, igualdad, etc. Después viene el crecimiento de una oligarquía que está tan interesada en aferrarse a sus privilegios como lo está cualquier otra clase dominante. Tal oligarquía necesariamente será hostil a revoluciones en otros lugares, las cuales inevitablemente despiertan de nuevo las ideas de libertad e igualdad.

el nuevo grupo de los Altos, a diferencia de sus predecesores, no actuaba ya por instinto, sino que sabía lo que necesitaba hacer para salvaguardar su posición. Los privilegiados se habían dado cuenta desde hacía bastante tiempo de que la base más segura para la oligarquía es el colectivismo.

Charity is for the ruling class

she had inherited a sprawling archipelago of disparate languages and cultures that owed its semblance of unity mainly to the legal definition of Filipino citizenship and an allegiance to the Catholic Church. Despite its modern trappings, it was still a feudal society dominated by an oligarchy of rich dynasties, which had evolved from one of the world's longest continuous spans of Western imperial rule.

say very mildly, we have only one political party in the U.S., the Property Party, with two right wings, Republican and Democrat.

We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life.

A slave government is an oligarchy; and one, too, of the most arbitrary and criminal character.

Three times before, in the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1920s, oligarchs took over the American government and threatened to destroy democracy. In each case, they overreached, and regular folks took back their government.

The Republican Party is not, as advertised, conservative but radically oligarchical. Programmatically it exists to advance corporate economic and political interests, and to protect and promote inequalities of opportunity and wealth.

Banana republics are run on cronyism.

Democracy is about one person, one vote. It's about all of us coming together to determine the future of our country. It is not about a handful of billionaires buying elections, or governors suppressing the vote by denying poor people or people of color the right to vote. Our job is to stand together to defeat the drift toward oligarchy and create a vibrant democracy.

In 2007, the top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income, more than the bottom 50 percent. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. That is not the foundation of a democratic society. That is the foundation for an oligarchic society. The rich get richer. The middle class shrinks. Poverty increases.

Inequality, corruption, oligarchy, and authoritarianism are inseparable. They must be understood as part of the same system, and fought in the same way.

Humanity is at a crossroads. We can continue down the current path of greed, consumerism, oligarchy, poverty, war, racism, and environmental degradation. Or we can lead the world in moving in a very different direction.

we are living in a time where a handful of people have wealth beyond comprehension.

But oligarchy is not a uniquely Russian phenomenon. It's a global reality that our corporate media chooses to examine in only the narrowest of terms. What about the oligarchs of America? What about the perverse and destructive role that they play in shaping our society? Why is there no acknowledgment, by our political and media elites, that there is an American oligarchy every bit as dangerous as the oligarchies we decry in other countries?

Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy that we are seeing in this country.

I have long since thrown in the towel on the Democratic and Republican parties because they are really a front group for the 1%, for predatory banks, fossil fuel giants, and war profiteers.