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Thought for Today
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* * * * * * * * * July 31.
"We must not allow ourselves to become like the
system we oppose. We cannot afford to use methods of which we will
be ashamed when we look back, when we say, '...we shouldn't have
done that.' July 30.
"No one has ever succeeded in keeping nations at
war except by lies." July 29.
"Search for the truth is the noblest occupation
of man; its publication is a duty." July 28.
"The enormous gap between what US leaders do in
the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of
the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political
mythology." July 27.
"Wars are seldom caused by spontaneous hatreds
between people, for peoples in general are too ignorant of one
another to have grievances and too indifferent to what goes on
beyond their borders to plan conquests. They must be urged to the
slaughter by politicians who know how to alarm them." July 26.
"Few of us can easily surrender our belief that
society must somehow make sense. The thought that The State has lost
its mind and is punishing so many innocent people is intolerable.
And so the evidence has to be internally denied." July 25.
"The industrial way of life leads to the
industrial way of death. From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to
Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great
specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of
human corpses." July 24.
"Our constitutions purport to be established by
'the people,' and, in theory, 'all the people' consent to such
government as the constitutions authorize. But this consent of 'the
people' exists only in theory. It has no existence in fact.
Government is in reality established by the few; and these few
assume the consent of all the rest, without any such consent being
actually given." July 23.
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great
ones to public office." July 22.
"Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a
government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting
itself?" July 21.
"Men in authority will always think that
criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate
their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive." July 20.
"We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots,
and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty,
suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all
hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else
than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good
deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere,
the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of
it and step on much of it with our feet."
"Justice in the life and conduct of the State is
possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the
citizens" July 18.
"When a cause comes along and you know in your
bones that it is just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you
begin to die. And I have never July 17.
An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching
his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on
inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves.
One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed,
arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride
and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope,
sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship,
empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight
is going on inside of you and every other person too." July 16.
"Now those who seek absolute power, even though
they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding
the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth, and let
me remind you they are the very ones who always create the most
hellish tyranny" July 15.
"The masses have never thirsted after truth.
Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master;
whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim".
July 14.
"I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be
party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing
to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and
defend America's laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders
for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today." July 13.
"Foolish men imagine that because judgment for an
evil thing is delayed, there is no justice...Judgment for an evil
thing is many times delayed...but it is sure as life, it is sure as
death." July 12.
"Patriotism means advocating plunder in the
interests of the privileged class of your particular country. The
time will soon come when calling someone a patriot will be the
deepest insult." July 11.
"The first time it was reported that our friends
were being butchered there was a cry of horror. Then a hundred were
butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end
to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. When evil doing comes
like falling rain, nobody calls out 'stop!' July 10.
"I destroy my enemies when I make them my
friends" July 09.
"What does it matter to the dead, the orphans,
and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the
name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
July 08.
"Be alert that dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered Expression": Gerard K. O'Neill, 2081 (1927-1992)
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