...c'est la même chose(?)Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home
is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
—James Madison in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 13, 1798
This administration looks at the
facts, and reviews the best available science
based on what’s right for the American people.
—White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, New York Times (August 8, 2003),
in response to a report by the House Committee on Government Reform that the
Bush administration
persistently manipulates scientific data to serve its ideology, protect the
interests of its political supporters,
and has distorted or suppressed scientific findings on a variety of issues, such
as global warming and sex education.
To
announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to
stand by the president,
right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public.
—Theodore Roosevelt, “Editorial,” Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
Plus ça change,
plus...
...c'est la même chose(?)
Perhaps it
is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home
is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.
—James Madison in a letter to
Thomas Jefferson, May 13, 1798
Why
of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to
risk his life in a war
when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece?
Naturally the common people
don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in
Germany. That is understood. But, after all,
it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a
communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice,
the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy.
All you have to do is tell them they
are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to danger.
It works the same in any country.
—Hermann
Göring,
second in command during Hitler’s Third Reich
We,
in this generation, will not only have to apologize for the hateful words and
actions of the bad people,
but also for the appalling silence of the good people.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.