THE SYSTEM AND THE TYRANT

“Tis time to fear, when tyrants seem to kiss”. William Shakespeare

“Herein lies a riddle: How can a people so gifted by God become so seduced by naked power, so greedy for money, so addicted to violence, so slavish before mediocre and treacherous leadership, so paranoid, deluded, lunatic”? Father Berrigan

“Those who voluntarily put power into the hands of a tyrant … must not wonder if it be at last turned against themselves”. Aesop

“Unfortunately for us, ‘the champions of the people’ being chosen today appear more fascist than populist… and more kleptocrat than plutocrat, with the leader’s skills more in running a con game than in understanding the workings of the system”. Brad DeLong

“Only a humorless tyrant could want a perpetual chanting of praises that, one has no choice but to assume” Christopher Hitchens

“Degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors”. Albert Einstein

“Small natures require despotism to exercise their sinews, as great souls thirst for equality to give play to their heart”. Balzac

“It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail”. Samuel Adams

“By trampling upon the helpless abroad with unchecked surveillance, Americans have learned, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home.” Mark Twain