J William Fulbright - Beth Simone Noveck - Mark Thomas TV - Star Trek TV - Jim Callaghan - Nigel Farage - Joe Biden - Rahm Emanuel - Niall Ferguson - Thomas Paine - Henry Kissinger – Henry Kissingher & Dick Cavett’s Watergate TV - Anton Chekhov - Ron Paul - Robbie Coltraine - Jean-Francois Cope - Noam Chomsky - Terence McKenna - Thomas Jefferson - T S Eliot - Nafeez Ahmed TV - The Office US TV - Naomi Klein & The Shock Doctrine 2009 - Storyville TV - George Clarke’s Council House Scandal TV - The Crime of the Century TV - Why the United States Can't Handle Crisis 2021 - What Causes a Recession 2023 - Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis 2023 -
The American public has become so conditioned by crises, by warnings, by words, that there are few, other than the young, who protest against what is happening. J William Fulbright
The crisis of modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, a free press and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder. Arundhati Roy
Democratic elections alone do not remedy the crisis of confidence in government. Moreover, there is no viable justification for a democratic system in which public participation is limited to voting. Beth Simone Noveck
Tonight’s show is all about how we are about to subsidize some of the richest corporations on the planet so that they could be able to dump their crap on some of the poorest most vulnerable people on the Earth and call it charity … Drug dumping: this is about dumping of useless drugs and pharmaceuticals in third world countries, usually in a crisis. Mark Thomas Comedy Product s6e3, Channel 4 2002
‘We were sent silicon breast implants.’ ibid. Malawi health service
There comes to all races an ultimate crisis. Star Trek s2e20: Return to Tomorrow, Sargon
We must acknowledge once and for all that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis. Star Trek s3e16: The Mark of Gideon
I don’t think other people in the world would share the view there is mounting chaos. Jim Callaghan
What they do of course, and it’s a well-established technique, they try and use any crisis. Now whether it’s a real crisis or whether it’s a crisis of their invention, they use the crisis to extend the argument for a loss of democracy, a loss of freedom of the individual and the increase in global governance. Nigel Farage, interview Alex Jones
It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did Jack Kennedy. Watch: we’re gonna have an international crisis. A generated crisis to test the mettle of this guy. Joe Biden, vice-president
You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn’t think you could do before. Rahm Emanuel, Wall Street Journal November 2008
What starts with competition for Olympic medals could end in a battle over dollars if the Chinese decide one day to cut off their credit line to the American empire. Maybe as it name suggests Chimerica is nothing more than a chimera ... The really big crises come just seldom enough to be beyond the living memory of the people who run today’s companies, banks and funds. Professor Niall Ferguson, Ascent of Money: Chimerica, PBS 2009
The ascent of money has seldom been smooth. Time and again it’s been punctuated by big painful crises. ibid.
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Thomas Paine, The Crisis
There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. Henry A Kissinger
‘He invited crises and that he couldn’t stand normalcy.’ Dick Cavett’s Watergate, Kissinger
Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out. Anton Chekhov
Believe me, the next step is a currency crisis because there will be a rejection of the dollar, the rejection of the dollar is a big, big event, and then your personal liberties are going to be severely threatened. Ron Paul
The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow. H G Wells
See, what you’re meant to do when you have a mid-life crisis is buy a fast car, aren’t you? Well, I’ve always had fast cars. It’s not that. It’s the fear that you’re past your best. It’s the fear that the stuff you’ve done in the past is your best work. Robbie Coltraine
There has been a banking crisis, a financial crisis, an economic crisis, a social crisis, a geostrategic crisis and an environmental crisis. That’s considerable in a country that’s used to being protected. Jean-Francois Cope
One of the most interesting reactions to come out of 1968 was in the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, which believed there was a ‘crisis of democracy’ from too much participation of the masses. Noam Chomsky
The Obama victory in 2008 was primarily due to a big flow of capital that poured in especially toward the end from financial institutions who preferred him to McCain, and that carried him over the edge, and of course they expected to be rewarded and they were immediately. The country was in the midst of a big financial crisis and the main task was to deal with it: Obama picked an economic team to deal with the crisis; the team was selected almost entirely from the people who were responsible for the crisis. Noam Chomsky, lecture Oregon 20 April 2011, ‘Global Hegemony: The Facts the Images’
Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness. Terence McKenna
The most fortunate of us all in our journey through life frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which greatly afflict us. To fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives. Thomas Jefferson
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? T S Eliot, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, 1917
The doctrine of unlimited growth is a failed doctrine; it cannot work, and it is creating absolute disaster. Nafeez Ahmed, The Crisis of Civilization, 2011
We have passed the tipping point on climate change. ibid.
Science is not the problem here: it’s the way in which the political players are exploiting the science in order to legitimize their own vested interests. ibid.
We most likely peaked in world oil production in 2005. ibid.
What the free market ideology does is it organises the economy in such a way that the state really has no role, so the free market ideology is actually taking power through these economic decisions and transactions completely out of the hands of the public and giving free rein to all manner of actors and vested interests that have nothing to do with the popular will. ibid.
We have a crisis. Apparently a disgruntled employee at the paper mill decided it would be funny to put an obscene watermark on our 24 pound creme butter-sock. 500 boxes has gone out … The Office US s3e21: Product Recall, Michael, NBC 2007
The economic chaos that we’re seeing right now on Wall Street and on Main Street and on Washington stems from many factors of course but among them are the ideas of Milton Friedman. The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein, 2009
The thesis of the shock doctrine is that we’ve been sold a fairy tale about how these radical policies have swept the globe, that they haven’t swept the globe on the backs of freedom and democracy, but they’ve needed shocks, they have needed crises, they have needed states of emergencies. ibid.
With the population in shock, Pinochet imposed the policies recommended by the Chicago boys: the removal of price controls, the sale of state companies, the removal of import barriers and cuts to government expenditure. Friedman later acknowledged the importance of the Chilean experiment. It didn’t work. ibid.
This savage stream of pure capitalism … came to dominate the world. ibid. Klein
Friedman enjoyed a friendly relationship with Nixon. Several of his Chicago School colleagues and disciples were recruited to work for the government. Donald Rumsfeld was one of them. ibid.
Thatcher’s profound unpopularity seemed to be proving once again that free-market fundamentalism was simply too unpopular, too directly harmful to many people to survive in a democratic state where governing requires getting the consent of the governed, unlike a military dictatorship. What pulled Thatcher back from the abyss and ultimately saved the project was a crisis – indeed it was the ultimate crisis: a war. ibid.
The majority of Russians opposed the Chicago Boys’ radical vision for their country. ibid.