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5f4bce0 One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. capitalism corruption government history oppression power rationalization society Carl Sagan
0f49bea Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance. complacency corruption decline misgovernment political-philosophy Thomas Jefferson
31a1663 Do you know we are being led to Slaughters by placid admirals & that fat slow generals are getting Obscene on young blood Do you know we are ruled by t.v. corruption media television Jim Morrison
adef29a How often the priest had heard the same confession--Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater the glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or civilization--it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt. corruption death evil glory god sacrifice sin vice Graham Greene
5f0bbc2 Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper. civil-rights-movement corrupt corruption martin-luther-king-jr politics race-relations racism silence slavery Martin Luther King Jr.
876bca2 My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal corruption court-system courts ethical-behaviour ethics governement government law law-and-order lawyers modern-life modern-society modernity modernity-is-a-sickness the-supreme-court Nassim Nicholas Taleb
aba0ff1 In poor countries, officials receive explicit bribes; in D.C. they get the sophisticated, implicit, unspoken promise to work for large corporations corporate-ethics corporations corporatism corruption government government-corruption inside-job politics washington-dc washington-dc-politics Nassim Nicholas Taleb
fc14fa5 It is a well-known fact that very often, putting the period of boyhood out of the argument, the older we grow the more cynical and hardened we become; indeed, many of us are only saved by timely death from moral petrification, if not from moral corruption. amorality corruption cynicism growing-old hopelessness immorality morality H. Rider Haggard
b194495 I've got a pretty good idea what children are, and we're not children. Children can lose sometimes, and nobody cares. corruption innocence losing maturity Orson Scott Card
7f54efa "It is supposed that power corrupts,' the caterpillar said in a voice as untroubled as time itself. "yet the powerful are often corrupt before they are powerful. In fact, I find that they too often become powerful by being corrupt. Whether real or perceived, a lack of power can also corrupt." corruption power Frank Beddor
f5fce47 "The devil himself can become beauty, so we are told, to corrupt mankind." (Marco)" corruption devil religion Iain Pears
7f870e5 Being a copper I like to see the law win. I'd like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at Folsom, alongside of the poor little slum-bred guys that got knocked over on their first caper amd never had a break since. That's what I'd like. You and me both lived too long to think I'm likely to see it happen. Not in this town, not in any town half this size, in any part of this wide, green and beautiful U.S.A. We just don't run our country that way. corruption crime injustice justice money prison Raymond Chandler
c75fe9e "What do you have to forget or overlook in order to desire that this dysfunctional clan once more occupies the White House and is again in a position to rent the Lincoln Bedroom to campaign donors and to employ the Oval Office as a massage parlor? You have to be able to forget, first, what happened to those who complained, or who told the truth, last time. It's often said, by people trying to show how grown-up and unshocked they are, that all Clinton did to get himself impeached was lie about sex. That's not really true. What he actually lied about, in the perjury that also got him , was the bill-clinton corruption feminism gennifer-flowers hillary-clinton juanita-broaddrick kathleen-willey lies lincoln-bedroom monica-lewinsky oval-office perjury politics rape sex sleaze smear-campaign united-states united-states-elections-2008 white-house Christopher Hitchens
1101b30 In the end I began to understand. There is such a thing as absolute power over narrative. Those who secure this privilege for themselves can arrange stories about others pretty much where, and as, they like. Just as in corrupt, totalitarian regimes, those who exercise power over others can do anything. corruption imperialism narrative power Chinua Achebe
de1ba6d Plato argued that good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around law. By pretending that procedure will get rid of corruption, we have succeeded only in humiliating honest people and provided a cover of darkness and complexity for the bad people. There is a scandal here, but it's not the result of venal bureaucrats. (1994) p. 99 bureaucrats conservative corruption government plato policy politics politics-of-the-united-states process Philip K. Howard
1aa703b The whole point about corruption in politics is that it can't be done, or done properly, without a bipartisan consensus. corruption politics Christopher Hitchens
984c8f8 During the 1992 election I concluded as early as my first visit to New Hampshire that Bill Clinton was hateful in his behavior to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics. I have never had to take any of that back, whereas if you look up what most of my profession was then writing about the beefy, unscrupulous 'New Democrat,' you will be astonished at the quantity of sheer saccharine and drool. Anyway, I kept on about it even after most Republicans had consulted the opinion polls and decided it was a losing proposition, and if you look up the transcript of the eventual Senate trial of the president--only the second impeachment hearing in American history--you will see that the last order of business is a request (voted down) by the Senate majority leader to call Carol and me as witnesses. So I can dare to say that at least I saw it through. bill-clinton carol-blue chauvinism corruption democratic-party-us elections history impeachment impeachment-of-bill-clinton lies misogyny money new-democrats new-hampshire pathology politics presidents republican-party-us sexism trials united-states us-presidential-election-1992 us-presidents us-senate women Christopher Hitchens
f81ee1e The last time that I consciously wrote anything to 'save the honor of the Left', as I rather pompously put it, was my little book on the crookedness and cowardice and corruption (to put it no higher) of Clinton. I used leftist categories to measure him, in other words, and to show how idiotic was the belief that he was a liberal's champion. Again, more leftists than you might think were on my side or in my corner, and the book was published by Verso, which is the publishing arm of the . However, if a near-majority of leftists and liberals choose to think that Clinton was the target of a witch-hunt and the victim of 'sexual McCarthyism', an Arkansan Alger Hiss in other words, you become weary of debating on their terms and leave them to make the best of it. arkansas bill-clinton corruption cowardice debate delusion idiocy impeachment-of-bill-clinton leftism lewinsky-scandal liberalism mccarthyism new-left-review sex verso-books witch-hunt Christopher Hitchens
b95bc32 How is a magician to exist without books? Let someone explain to me. It is like asking a politician to achieve high office without the benefit of bribes or patronage. 2004 books bribery corruption jonathan-strange magic patronage politicians Susanna Clarke
cce4ac1 "[Free trade agreements] are trade agreements that don't brilliant bush capitalism communism corporations corporatocracy corruption coup-d-état democratic dictator fascism free-trade genius gore government green-party inefficiency intelligent jefferson lincoln nader obama politics progressive protectionism ralph-nader reform rich socialism terrorism transparency washington Ralph Nader
e039538 ...you'll see, he said, they'll go back to dividing everything up among the priests, the gringos and the rich, and nothing for the poor, naturally, because they've always been so fucked up that the day that shit is worth money, poor people will be born without an asshole... corruption human-nature humor Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
23f346e The games are always been played, and no one plays the games like me. You just have to be the best. And I usually am. corruption deceit evil manipulation mind-games twisted Irvine Welsh
281de5a "It's because of my grandfather that I became a Young Avenger. But it's hard sometimes, to be a black kid carrying a name like "Patriot". I remember talking to Captain America about before he died, and he explained what Patriotism meant to him... It wasn't about blindly supporting your government. It was about knowing what your country could be, what it should be... And trying to lead it there through your example. And holding it accountable when it failed. I remember he said: "There's noting patriotic about corruption or cover-ups... or defending them. But exposing them, well, that takes a hero." captain-america comics corruption cover-ups eli elijah-bradley equality heroism non-conformism patriot patriotism race-and-racism-in-america young-avengers Ed Brubaker
55b4b4d Inevitably came the time when he angrily repudiated his former paladin Yasser Arafat. In fact, he described him to me as 'the Palestinian blend of Marshal Petain and Papa Doc.' But the main problem, alas, remained the same. In Edward's moral universe, Arafat could at last be named as a thug and a practitioner of corruption and extortion. But he could only be identified as such to the extent that he was now and at last aligned with an American design. Thus the only truly unpardonable thing about 'The Chairman' was his readiness to appear on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton in 1993. I have real knowledge and memory of this, because George Stephanopoulos--whose father's Orthodox church in Ohio and New York had kept him in touch with what was still a predominantly Christian Arab-American opinion--called me more than once from the White House to help beseech Edward to show up at the event. 'The feedback we get from Arab-American voters is this: If it's such a great idea, why isn't Said signing off on it?' When I called him, Edward was grudging and crabby. 'The old man [Arafat] has no right to sign away land.' Really? Then what had the Algiers deal been all about? How could two states come into being without mutual concessions on territory? arabs arafat bill-clinton christians corruption edward-said extortion francois-duvalier george-stephanopoulos israeli-palestinian-conflict new-york ohio philippe-petain territory united-states vox-populi white-house yitzhak-rabin Christopher Hitchens
3c92d5f "The history of mankind," said Dreed, "has been a history of betrayals, the perennial betrayal of the common man by the men he has trusted." "By the men the lazy, haphazard, childish oaf was too wilfully stupid to mistrust," said Bodisham. "The history of mankind from the very beginning has been a history of over-trusted trustees, corrupted by their unchecked opportunities." corruption humankind leaders trust H.G. Wells
c08ac07 Not even ten additional years of slavery could have done so much to throttle the thrift of the freedmen as the mismanagement and bankruptcy of the series of savings banks chartered by the Nation for their especial aid. corruption legacy W.E.B. Du Bois
5acbffc Rolf Ekeus came round to my apartment one day and showed me the name of the Iraqi diplomat who had visited the little West African country of Niger: a statelet famous only for its production of yellowcake uranium. The name was Wissam Zahawi. He was the brother of my louche gay part-Kurdish friend, the by-now late Mazen. He was also, or had been at the time of his trip to Niger, Saddam Hussein's ambassador to the Vatican. I expressed incomprehension. What was an envoy to the Holy See doing in Niger? Obviously he was not taking a vacation. Rolf then explained two things to me. The first was that Wissam Zahawi had, when Rolf was at the United Nations, been one of Saddam Hussein's chief envoys for discussions on nuclear matters (this at a time when the Iraqis had functioning reactors). The second was that, during the period of sanctions that followed the Kuwait war, no Western European country had full diplomatic relations with Baghdad. TheVatican was the sole exception, so it was sent a very senior Iraqi envoy to act as a listening post. And this man, a specialist in nuclear matters, had made a discreet side trip to Niger. This was to suggest exactly what most right-thinking people were convinced was the case: namely that British intelligence was on to something when it said that Saddam had not ceased seeking nuclear materials in Africa. I published a few columns on this, drawing at one point an angry email from Ambassador Zahawi that very satisfyingly blustered and bluffed on what he'd really been up to. I also received--this is what sometimes makes journalism worthwhile--a letter from a BBC correspondent named Gordon Correa who had been writing a book about A.Q. Khan. This was the Pakistani proprietor of the nuclear black market that had supplied fissile material to Libya, North Korea, very probably to Syria, and was open for business with any member of the 'rogue states' club. (Saddam's people, we already knew for sure, had been meeting North Korean missile salesmen in Damascus until just before the invasion, when Kim Jong Il's mercenary bargainers took fright and went home.) It turned out, said the highly interested Mr. Correa, that his man Khan had been in Niger, and at about the same time that Zahawi had. The likelihood of the senior Iraqi diplomat in Europe and the senior Pakistani nuclear black-marketeer both choosing an off-season holiday in little uranium-rich Niger... well, you have to admit that it makes an affecting picture. But you must be ready to credit something as ridiculous as that if your touching belief is that Saddam Hussein was already 'contained,' and that Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair were acting on panic reports, fabricated in turn by self-interested provocateurs. baath-party baathism baathist-iraq baghdad bbc corruption damascus diplomacy george-w-bush gordon-correa invasion-of-kuwait iraq journalism kim-jong-il kuwait libya military-intelligence niger north-korea nuclear-proliferation nuclear-weapons pakistan rogue-states rolf-ekeus saddam-hussein sanctions syria terrorism tony-blair united-nations uranium vatican west-africa western-europe wissam-zahawi Christopher Hitchens
a4122da But so often, things of great beauty are full of great corruption. corruption Francine Rivers
83f6672 doctors & druggists wash each other's hands corruption fda partnership Geoffrey Chaucer
536335a This mundus tenebrosus, this shaddowy world of Mankind, is sunk into Night; there is not a Field without its Spirits, nor a City without its Daemons, and the Lunaticks speak Prophesies while the Wise men fall into the Pitte. We are all in the Dark, one with another. And, as the Inke stains the Paper on which it is spilt and slowly spreads to Blot out the Characters, so the Contagion of darkness and malefaction grows apace until all becomes unrecognizable. Thus it was with the Witches who were tryed by Swimming not long before, since once the Prosecution had commenced no Stop could be put to the raving Women who came forward: the number of Afflicted and Accused began to encrease and, upon Examination, more confess'd themselves guilty of Crimes than were suspected of. And so it went, till the Evil revealed was so great that it threatened to bring all into Confusion. And yet in the way of that Philosophie much cryed up in London and elsewhere, there are those like Sir Chris. who speak only of what is Rational and what is Demonstrated, of Propriety and Plainness. Religion Not Mysterious is their Motto, but if they would wish the Godhead to be Reasonable why was it that when Adam heard that Voice in the Garden he was afraid unto Death? The Mysteries must become easy and familiar, it is said, and it has now reached such a Pitch that there are those who wish to bring their mathematicall Calculations into Morality, viz. the Quantity of Publick Good produced by any Agent is a compound Ratio of his Benevolence and Abilities, and such like Excrement. They build Edifices which they call Systems by laying their Foundacions in the Air and, when they think they are come to sollid Ground, the Building disappears and the Architects tumble down from the Clowds. Men that are fixed upon matter, experiment, secondary causes and the like have forgot there is such a thing in the World which they cannot see nor touch nor measure: it is the Praecipice into which they will surely fall. corruption darkness malefaction morality occult occult-philosophy occultism rationality witch witch-trials witches Peter Ackroyd
2b204af I recognized that hunger: a devouring thing that would gulp down lives with pleasure and would only pretend to care about law or justice, unless you had some greater power behind you that it couldn't find a way to cheat or break, and that would never, never be satisfied. corruption greed power wealth Naomi Novik
49bdb56 Malus: 'You look like a person with doubts.' Zoe: 'I wonder sometimes if any of this is real - or is it just a business, selling hope to people who can't afford it?' Malus: 'Clever people have been asking that question since the iron age, Zoe. The answer remains the same.' Zoe: 'And... ?' Malus: 'Business is good.' (A dialogue regarding the Church between a demon and a human.) corruption Terry Moore
62ad7ad "There's all kinds of phantom work! Unreal values assigned to most of the jobs on Earth! The entire transnational executive class does nothing a computer couldn't do, and there are whole categories of parasitical jobs that add nothing to the system by an ecologic accounting. Advertising, stock brokerage, the whole apparatus for making money only from the manipulation of money--that is not only wasteful but corrupting, as all meaningful money values get distorted in such manipulation." She waved her hand in disgust." bullshit-jobs business capitalism corruption executives money parasitism Kim Stanley Robinson
8d8e797 Look, I control a large part of this barrio because I control one thing, credit. That's right, it's that simple. Credit is the lifeline, the blood that turns the wheels. In Barelas I control it, but out there, well, out there are bigger animals, and they in turn control my credit. It doesn't matter how good a businessman I am, if they cut off my credit I am dead, the barrio's dead, nothing grows without the green blood of the dollar. Now, how long do you think it would take the banks to cut off my credit if I joined a group of communists like you? They'd do it like this! corruption credit greed Rudolfo Anaya
c80a4a3 There are so many shady things happening in this country, they're happening all around us all the time, and we just accept them. corruption country crime evil mystery philosophy truth united-states Rebecca McNutt
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