#democracy-quotes

[thepersonalwords]

If you are stupid enough not to know the difference between the devil and the angel, you quickly find the devil! This is what happens to most people in democracies just after elections!

Mehmet Murat ildan

[explore-blog]

I distrust Great Men. They produce a desert of uniformity around them and often a pool of blood too… I believe in aristocracy, though… Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. 

E.M Forster on the personal and political power of empaths and the relationship between democracy and creativity

[kafkasapartment]

“The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other.”

“Freedom and Government” - Bertrand Russell

[welcometomypov]

Hey Democrats?

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

“After having thus taken each individual one by one into its powerful hands, and having molded him as it pleases, the sovereign power extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute, and uniform rules, which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them; it rarely forces action, but it constantly opposes your acting; it does not destroy, it prevents birth; it does not tyrannize, it hinders, it represses, it enervates, it extinguishes, it stupefies, and finally it reduces each nation to being nothing more than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

[mysharona1987]

[stillnaomi]

The bourgeoisie does its job splendidly; it makes all sorts of promises, but in effect pursues only its class policy.

Lenin, 1917

[pratchettquotes]

A Personal Note: Celebrating 4,000 Followers*

Lord Vetinari walked out of the room and back into the main hall, with Vimes trailing behind. "However," he said, "in order to keep the peace, the golem will have to be destroyed."

"No, sir."

"Allow me to repeat my instruction."

"No, sir."

"I'm sure I just gave you an order, Commander. I distinctly felt my lips move."

"No, sir. He's alive, sir."

"He's just made out of clay, Vimes."

"Aren't we all, sir? According to them pamphlets Constable Visit keeps handing out. Anyway, he thinks he's alive, and that's good enough for me."

The Patrician waved a hand towards the stairs and his office full of paper. "Nevertheless, Commander, I've had no less than nine missives from leading religious figures declaring that he is an abomination."

"Yes, sir. I've given that viewpoint a lot of thought, sir, and reached the following conclusion: arseholes to the lot of 'em, sir."

The Patrician's hand covered his mouth for a moment. "Sir Samuel, you are a harsh negotiator. Surely you can give and take?"

"Couldn't say, sir."

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

*A Rare Personal Note: This exchange comes after what may be one of the most famous Discworld moments of all time: the conversation where Vimes and Vetinari first discuss the age old question, "Who watches the Watch?", which becomes one of the central threads of Vimes' character progression. But the end of the conversation, which involves the fate of the newly christened Constable Dorfl, strikes me powerfully today. This marks one of the few times in canon that Vimes explicitly rejects one of Vetinari's commands on moral grounds. It also marks a rare moment when Vimes and Vetinari (who are often complex foils for each other) seem to agree on a fundamental point of morality: that a person must be treated as a person, whatever the cost, even if we do not understand them. On the last day of 2023, this seems more important to me than ever. We 4,000 Pratchett fans who share the quotes that fill this blog likely share very little else: If we met on the street we would not agree about politics, religion, the weather, or the correct storage of Battle Bread. But I think that Sir Terry would perhaps want us to remember that, even when we are at our most opposed, we are all made out of clay -- and that is something worth protecting. Happy New Year, my friends. May we all continue to learn what must be given, and what can never be taken.

[shu-of-the-wind]

The Founding Fathers wanted a democracy that, unlike the king of England, would derive its power from "the consent of the governed." But they also wanted an empire. And so they built both: a democracy that at its center gave every citizen a voice and a vote, and an empire that, as it constantly expanded, controlled the lives and lands of people who had no say. While over the centuries who was included in that center of democracy changed, the edge of empire never went away. From Indigenous nations, to Guam and Puerto Rico, to migrants detained at our border, there have always been people who lived under the raw power of our government but without the liberties and privileges of our Constitution. Our inheritance as American citizens is a democracy that is often wildly undemocratic--a government that rules both by consent and by conquest. ~Rebecca Nagle, By The Fire We Carry

[without-ado]

Corruption vs. Democracy 2024

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

l art: Allan McDonalds l quote: George Orwell "Animal Farm"

[donotdestroy]

“The great thing about America is, here, kings and dictators do not rule. The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.” — President Joe Biden

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The elegant historian @TimothyDSnyder wrote this as a kind of introduction to Biden's speech tonight. Nothing to add.

[mollysunder]

In Act 2's "Dirty Little Animals" sequence, we get a shot where masked men armed with short staffs guard a building called, "The Herald's Palace".

In the next episode, we see the silhouette of the Machine Herald illustrated. in the Magician tarot. The mask is unlike any skin that currently exists, because no other mask has been decorated with three shards to resemble a crown.

Within the Herald's grasp is Jinx's graffiti tag rotated onmits side, which is placed at the center of what should be the hexcore.

The wall that frames the sign of the "Herald's Palace" is decorated with blue swirls lit blue by the surrounding neon, that resembles the blue swirls of Jinx's cloud smoke tattoos.

But that sounds far-fetched doesn't it? How can we be sure these swirls are meant to represent Jinx?

I say we can because Jinx's tattoo swirls have been used as her calling card in another music video, Ekko's. In the "Misfit Toys" mv, we see a shot where the now deceased Eve's mask lays on the ground framed by scattered bullet shells engraved with swirls.

Once again, how can we be sure these swirls on the bullets this time are meant to represent Jinx? The storyboard tells us so.

The storyboard draft of this shot has the bullets engraved with more scratchy doodles in Jinx's style, but the final product shows they decided on using her tattoo patterns for a more subtle and uniform reference. It's all to subtly message that Jinx is responsible for this scene

So what does any of this mean?

It means that at least twice the Machine Herald has been referenced in-show with symbolism for royalty and Jinx tied to him. Could this foreshadow that Viktor will have a meteoric rise to power in Zaun to mirror Jayce's own in the first season? Maybe. Jinx will probably partially facilitate it somehow. Sevika will "quit smoking" next season, so there might be an even bigger vacuum than we thought.

One more thing! Before Arcane's premiere, they hosted a live event called, Undercity Nights, where you play as a Zaunite and join a chembaron faction to take control of the Undercity. This is the call to action.

It's interesting that they included two different quotes in here. One from Caitlyn, and the other from Viktor. We know Caitlyn is poised to not just become Sheriff but inherit her mother's seat on the Council as well next season. What does it mean to include Viktor?

[kafkasapartment]

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

Eleanor Roosevelt

[read-marx-and-lenin]

tbh I should have realized that I wasn't an anarchist anymore in 2019 when I stopped answering "how will X work under socialism" by basically going "idk lol we'll find out when we get there" and started giving examples of how things work in Cuba and Vietnam today.

[aunti-christ-ine]