Citizens,
did you want a revolution without revolution? Original French: Citoyens,
vouliez-vous une révolution sans révolution?
Réponse à J.- B. Louvet, a speech to the
National Convention (5 November 1792)
Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That
revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How
was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of
independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed. The French
Revolution —— what was it based on? The land—less against the landlord. What
was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost; was no
compromise; was no negotiation. I’m telling you, you don’t know what a
revolution is. ’Cause when you find out what it is, you’ll get back in the
alley; you’ll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution —— what was it based
on? Land. The land—less against the landlord. How did they bring it about?
Bloodshed. You haven’t got a revolution that doesn’t involve bloodshed. And
you’re afraid to bleed. I said, you’re afraid to bleed.
“The smallest
and most inoffensive state is still criminal in its dreams.” Bakunin
“Certain
women enjoy rough sex. I suppose they like to feel humiliated, cheap, dirty,
nasty.” Roxanne Hall
“These
it is who kill the rich crop of reason with the barren thorns of passion,
who accustom men’s minds to disease, instead
of setting them free.” Boethius
“I
desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus
“Once upon a time, Chuang Tzu dreamed that he was a
butterfly, flying about enjoying itself. It did not know that it was Chuang Tzu.
Suddenly he awoke, and veritably was Chuang Tzu again. He did not know whether
it was Chuang Tzu dreaming that he was a butterfly, or whether it was the
butterfly dreaming that it was Chuang Tzu. Between Chuang Tzu and the butterfly there must be some
distinction. This is a case of what is called the transformation of things.”
Chaung Tzu
“Individuals and masses attribute everything that irks
them, without exception, to the existing dispensation, while for the most part
what they are suffering under is inherent human frailty.” Jacob Burckhardt, Force and Freedom
“The
realization of ethical values on earth by the state would simply be brought to
grief again and again by the spiritual inadequacy of human nature in general,
and even by the best of humanity in particular.” Jacob Burckhardt, Force and
Freedom
"Poor
naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That
bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How
shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your
loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From
seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too
little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose
thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That
thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And
show the heavens more just."
William
Shakespeare, King Lear
Because
I see so many weak ones trodden down, I greatly doubt the sincerity of much
that is called progress and civilization, but only in the kind that is founded
on real humanity. That which costs human life I think cruel, and I do not
respect it.
—–Vincent van Gogh, The Hague, December 1881
Because
I see so many weak ones trodden down, I greatly doubt the sincerity of much
that is called progress and civilization.’
—–Vincent van Gogh, The Hague, December 1881
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is
fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62, The Bible
"Who knows the fate of his bones or how often he is
to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes or whither they are to be
scattered?" Thomas Browne
"Who knows the fate of his bones or how often he is
to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes or whither they are to be
scattered?" Thomas Browne
"Who knows the fate of his bones or how often he is
to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes or whither they are to be
scattered?" Thomas Browne
“To overthrow the authority of the bourgeois class, the
humiliated population has reason to institute a brief period of terror and to
assault bodily a handful of contemptible, hateful individuals. It is difficult
to attack the authority of a class without a few heads belonging to members of
that class being paraded on a stake.” Benny Levy
The thought of American theologian and intellectual
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) is marked by the recognition of "the force
and pervasive reality of human sin," an abiding faith in a merciful God,
and a deep engagement with American society and culture. Niebuhr's attitude can
be characterized as one of pessimistic hope, or, to invoke one of Niebuhr's own
expressions, "pessimistic optimism." He rejects the easy optimism
that Americans find so appealing and discounts the doctrine of American
exceptionalism.
“It was wrong in the optimism which stated that the law
of love needed only to be stated persuasively to overcome the selfishness of
the human heart. The unhappy consequence of that optimism was to discharge
interest in the necessary mechanisms of social justice at the precise moment in
history when the development of a technical civilization required more than
ever that social ideals be implemented with economic and political techniques
designed to correct the injustices and brutalities which flow invariably from
an unrestrained and undisciplined exercise of economic power.” Reinhold Niebuhr
