Labour movements have regularly been in the forefront of popular struggles for basic rights including labour rights and democracy. Noam Chomsky, 2011 Rickman Godlee lecture, ‘Contours of Global Order’, Youtube 1.39.23
We can have democratic forms if we like but their reach is very narrow. Noam Chomsky, lecture Yale University 25th February 1997, ‘Neoliberalism and the Global Order’, Youtube 1.09.54
Typically states regard the general population as the enemy. That’s normal. The task and role of the population is to be apathetic, obedient, passive. If it’s what’s called a democracy they’re supposed to show up once in a while to ratify elite decisions, but if they get involved in anything beyond that, they’re causing trouble. Noam Chomsky, lecture 1989, ‘Speaks Out! Oh Shut Up Ronnie!’, Youtube 58.22
The cost of elections has skyrocketed … democracy has eroded … 70% of the population is essentially disenfranchised ... their opinions have no effect on policy; influence increases slowly as wealth increases; you get to the top fraction of 1%, they pretty much get what they want. Noam Chomsky, lecture 8th July 2017, ‘The Corporatization of the Universities’, Youtube 1.39.35
There’s a correlation for the top, for the richest: the top, the richest part of the population is pretty good – correlation between Senate votes and preferences; for the middle of the population there’s no correlation; for the bottom third of the population there’s a negative correlation, that is the senate votes are the opposite of what they want. Noam Chomsky, lecture Oregon 20 April 2011, ‘Global Hegemony: The Facts The Images’
The spectrum is basically from centre to extreme right, extreme right, way off the spectrum. Noam Chomsky: The Empire’s Election Extravaganza, Chomsky, interview Abby Martin: The Empire Files, Youtube 2015
Both parties shifted to the right as everywhere in the world, and the Republicans just went off the spectrum. ibid.
Obama is running a global terror programme of a kind that has never been envisioned before. ibid.
The right to use force and violence at will is accepted pretty much across the spectrum. ibid.
About 70% of the public, the lowest 70% of the income scale, are pretty much disenfranchised; their attitudes have no detectable influence on the policies of their own representatives. ibid.
A plutocracy with democratic forms. ibid.
The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything. Charles Moore
Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate: only the unloved hate, the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers, don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty! You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure! Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power. Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world, a decent world. Charles Chaplin
The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. Karl Marx
Democracy is the road to Socialism. Karl Marx, disputed quotation
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. Nelson Mandela
There is a body of information being used by government to control the way people think and act. And experiments are systematically designed to increase government’s knowledge about that. This is the most threatening part of being a citizen in a democracy. When your government can manipulate how you vote and how you think. You no longer live in the democracy. Alan Scheflin, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society ... In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind. Edward L Bernays, Propaganda
Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government. ibid.
If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it. ibid.
There’s a lot of people in Anonymous who feel very deeply and very sincerely about their contribution towards democracy around the world. Storyville: How Hacking Changed the World, Anonyops, BBC 2013
I loved it. Especially the stories. This Bible was originally published in 1611. It aimed to take the Protestant faith to the English speaking world and it did. Hundreds of millions of copies have been printed over the last four hundred years. But there were radical unexpected consequences. You may think our modern world is founded on secular ideals. But I think that the King James’ version not only influenced the English language and literature more than any other book, it was also the seed-bed of Western democracy. Melvyn Bragg, The King James Bible: The Book that Changed the World, BBC 2011
Democracy is chatter. Corleone IX starring Caludio Gioe & Daniele Liotti & Simona Cavallari & Marco Leonardi & Salvatore Lazzaro & Marco Leonardi & Alfredo Pea et al, Riina, Canale 5 2007
I believe democracy is not negotiable. The Manchurian Candidate 2004 starring Denzel Washington & Meryl Street & Liev Schreiber & Kimberly Elise & Jon Voight & Vera Farmiga & Jeffrey Wright & Simon McBurney & Bruno Ganz et al, Shaw
A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy. Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means
To the sound of cheering, democracy died in Germany. Hitler’s Rise: The Colour Films II, Channel 4 2013
Welcome to the United States: home to the best democracy that money can buy. Chris Everard, Illuminati I, attributions & variations
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. Thomas Jefferson
It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan. Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson
The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy. Theodore H White, Time 19th November 1984
... Just because patriotism is all but universal and not even the rich are uninfluenced by it, there can be moments when the whole nation suddenly swings together and does the same thing, like a herd of cattle facing a wolf. There was such a moment, unmistakably, at the time of the disaster in France. After eight months of vaguely wondering what the war was about, the people suddenly knew what they had got to do: first, to get the army away from Dunkirk, and secondly to prevent invasion. It was like the awakening of a giant. Quick! Danger! The Philistines be upon thee, Samson! And then the swift unanimous action – and, then, alas, the prompt relapse into sleep. In a divided nation that would have been exactly the moment for a big peace movement to arise. But does this mean that the instinct of the English will always tell them to do the right thing? Not at all, merely that it will tell them to do the same thing. In the 1931 General Election, for instance, we all did the wrong thing in perfect unison. We were as single-minded as the Gedarene swine. But I honestly doubt whether we can say that we were shoved down the slope against our will.
It follows that British democracy is less of a fraud than it sometimes appears. A foreign observer sees only the huge inequality of wealth, the unfair electoral system, the governing-class control over the press, the radio and education, and concludes that democracy is simply a polite name for dictatorship. But this ignores the considerable agreement that does unfortunately exist between the leaders and the led. However much one may hate to admit it, it is almost certain that between 1931 and 1940 the National Government represented the will of the mass of the people. It tolerated slums, unemployment and a cowardly foreign policy. Yes, but so did public opinion. It was a stagnant period, and its natural leaders were mediocrities. George Orwell, England Your England III