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ed35651
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If there is one fact we really can prove, from the history that we really do know, it is that despotism can be a development, often a late development and very often indeed the end of societies that have been highly democratic. A despotism may almost be defined as a tired democracy. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.
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despotism
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G.K. Chesterton |
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d286aa0
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This society [Jesuits] has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or 's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed the progress of reformation and the improvement of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally. { }
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history
despotism
napoleon
napoleon-bonaparte
jesuits
french-revolution
jefferson
thomas-jefferson
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John Adams |
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a0af7ee
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Man does not necessarily begin with despotism because he is barbarous, but very often finds his way to despotism because he is civilised. He finds it because he is experienced; or, what is often much the same thing, because he is exhausted
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despotism
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G.K. Chesterton |
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7eff9ca
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"Call no man lucky until he is dead, but there have been moment of rare satisfaction in the often random and fragmented life of the radical freelance scribbler. I have lived to see Ronald Reagan called "a useful idiot for Kremlin propaganda" by his former idolators; to see the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union regarded with fear and suspicion by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (which blacked out an interview with Milos Forman broadcast live on Moscow TV); to see Mao Zedong relegated like a despot of antiquity. I have also had the extraordinary pleasure of revisiting countries--Greece, Spain, Zimbabwe, and others--that were dictatorships or colonies when first I saw them. Other mini-Reichs have melted like dew, often bringing exiled and imprisoned friends blinking modestly and honorably into the glare. --it still moves, all right."
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television
freedom
milos-forman
postcolonialism
ronald-reagan
moscow
czechoslovakia
despotism
liberation
zimbabwe
mao-zedong
journalism
dictatorship
spain
soviet-union
united-states
propaganda
colonialism
russia
communism
greece
cold-war
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Christopher Hitchens |
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43b5548
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From being a movement aiming for universal freedom, communism turned into a system of universal despotism. That is the logic of utopia.
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suffering
philosophy
despotism
utopia
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John Gray |
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2e57d33
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"Suppose that we agree that the two atrocities can or may be mentioned in the same breath. Why should we do so? I wrote at the time ( , October 5, 1998) that Osama bin Laden 'hopes to bring a "judgmental" monotheism of his own to bear on these United States.' Chomsky's recent version of this is 'considering the grievances expressed by people of the Middle East region.' In my version, then as now, one confronts an enemy who wishes ill to our society, and also to his own (if impermeable religious despotism is considered an 'ill'). In Chomsky's reading, one must learn to sift through the inevitable propaganda and emotion resulting from the September 11 attacks, and lend an ear to the suppressed and distorted cry for help that comes, not from the victims, but from the perpetrators. I have already said how distasteful I find this attitude. I wonder if even Chomsky would now like to have some of his own words back? Why else should he take such care to quote himself deploring the atrocity? Nobody accused him of not doing so. It's often a bad sign when people defend themselves against charges which haven't been made."
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war
emotion
religion
al-shifa-pharmaceutical-factory
noam-chomsky
the-nation
despotism
monotheism
war-crimes
theocracy
osama-bin-laden
september-11-attacks
middle-east
islamic-terrorism
terrorism
united-states
islam
propaganda
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Christopher Hitchens |
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6de268a
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Je voulais vous exposer mon livre aussi succinctement que possible; mais je vois qu'il me faudra y joindre encore quantite d'explications verbales. Mon expose exigera donc au moins dix soirees d'apres le nombre de chapitres de mon livre. (Il y eut quelques rires.) De plus, je dois vous prevenir que mon systeme n'est pas completement acheve. (Nouveaux rires.) Je me suis embrouille dans mes propres donnees et ma conclusion se trouve en contradiction directe avec l'idee fondamentale du systeme. Partant de la liberte illimitee, j'aboutis au despotisme illimite. J'ajoute a cela, cependant, qu'il ne peut y avoir d'autre solution du probleme que la mienne.
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philosophy
les-démons
despotism
liberty
russia
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky |