Jack Balkin - Justice Jackson & Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal - H L Mencken - Simon Schama TV - John F Kennedy - Socrates - George S Patton - William Shakespeare - Etienne-Gabriel Morelly - Rosa Parks - Harold Pinter - Margaret Mead - Jackie Robinson - George H W Bush - Mary Beard TV - The Return: Life After Isis TV -
There is no civil right. Not even the precious right of citizenship that this administration will not abuse to secure ever greater control over American life. Professor Jack Balkin, Yale University
It is not the function of the government to stop the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. Justice Robert Jackson, judge at Nuremberg trial
Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring. Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal
The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else. H L Mencken
Government today is growing too strong to be safe. There are no longer any citizens in the world there are only subjects. They work day in and day out for their masters they are bound to die for their masters at call. Out of this working and dying they tend to get less and less. H L Mencken
The plain fact is that education is itself a form of propaganda – a deliberate scheme to outfit the pupil, not with the capacity to weigh ideas, but with a simple appetite for gulping ideas ready-made. The aim is to make ‘good’ citizens, which is to say, docile and uninquisitive citizens. H L Mencken
It was David who would give people the vision of what a true citizen was. Simon Schama’s Power of Art: David, BBC 2007
This is Art designed to make those who saw it virtuous citizens. And it’s all so perfect, so tragic, so poetic, you almost believe it. ibid.
The knowledge that the physical well-being of the citizen is an important foundation for the vigor and vitality of all the activities of the nation, is as old as Western civilization itself ... And such softness on the part of individual citizens can help to strip and destroy the vitality of a nation. For the physical vigor of our citizens is one of America’s most precious resources. If we waste and neglect this resource, if we allow it to dwindle and grow soft then we will destroy much of our ability to meet the great and vital challenges which confront our people. We will be unable to realize our full potential as a nation. John F Kennedy, article Sports Illustrated December 1960
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world. Socrates
The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country. George S Patton junior
Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens,
’Tis just the fashion. Wherefore should you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there? William Shakespeare, As You Like It II i 55-57, First Lord
Every citizen will make his own contribution to the activities of the community according to his strength, his talent, and his age: it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, conforming with the distributive laws. Etienne-Gabriel Morelly, Code de la Nature, 1755
I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen. Rosa Parks
I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks. Harold Pinter
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead, attributed, cited Donald Keys
The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time. Jackie Robinson
I don’t know that atheists should be considered patriots, nor should they be considered citizens. This is one nation under God. George H W Bush, disputed quotation, cited Robert Sherman
Citizenship – and their ability to turn people not from Rome into fully fledged Romans. Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome III, BBC 2016
American Jihadi Bride Judged No Longer a Citizen: Hoda Muthana banned from returning to the US after fleeing in 2014 to join ISIS terrorists in Syria. The Return: Life After Isis, newspaper headline, Sky Documentaries 2021
No Regrets. No Remorse. No Entry. ibid.
Thousands of Isis families defeated and demoralised from facing surrender … and no-one knows what to do with them. ibid. news
ROJ detention camps, north-eastern Syria: home to 1,500 women and children from 56 different nations. ibid. caption
ISIS bride’s plea: Shamima Begum claims she was ‘just a housewife’ during her four years in Syria. ibid. Good Morning Britain news banner
We couldn’t distinguish between what was fake news and what was real news. We were all really young and naive. ibid.
The UK government has removed Shamima Begum’s citizenship. The Supreme Court has ruled she will not be able to re-enter the UK to fight her case in person. ibid. captions
64,000 Isis women and children still remain in Kurdish-controlled camps in north-eastern Syria. ibid.