It’s pretty well known that the CIA has been installing friendly dictators around the world for years. Rob Walton
Today the path of total dictatorship in the United States can be laid by strictly legal means, unseen and unheard by the Congress, the President or the people. Outwardly we have a constitutional government. We have operating within our government and political system another body representing another form of government – a bureaucratic elite. William Jenner, Senator 1954
His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung
Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad. John Milton, Paradise Lost IV:300
A crown
Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns.
Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights
To him who wears the regal diadem. John Milton, Paradise Regained II:458
I would love to be the perfect dictator. Brian Clough
On his return to Rome the people named him Perpetual Dictator. William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar 1970 starring Charlton Heston & Diana Rigg & Jason Robards & Christopher Lee & John Gielgud & Robert Vaughn & Richard Chamberlain & Richard Johnson & Jill Bennett et al, director Stuart Burge, prologue
When he had no power
But he was a petty servant to the state
He was your enemy, ever spake against
Your liberties and the charters that you bear
I’ the body of the weal ...
Did you perceive
He did solicit you in free contempt
When he did need your loves: and do you think
That his contempt shall not be bruising to you
When he hath power to crush? William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Brutus
Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are. People are never as weak as they think they are. Dr Gene Sharp
If you can identify the sources of a government’s power, such as legitimacy, such as popular support, such as the institution of support, and then you know on what that dictatorship depends ... Take those sources away: that regime will fall. Dr Gene Sharp
When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right. Victor Hugo
All democracies turn into dictatorships – but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea ... That’s the issue that I’ve been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire ... and how does a democracy become a dictatorship? George Lucas
The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting. Charles Bukowski
The capacity to assert social and political control over the individual will vastly increase. It will soon be possible to assert almost continuous control over every citizen and to maintain up-to-date files, containing even the most personal details about health and personal behavior of every citizen in addition to the more customary data.
These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities. Power will gravitate into the hands of those who control information. Our existing institutions will be supplanted by pre-crisis management institutions, the task of which will be to identify in advance likely social crises and to develop programs to cope with them.
This will encourage tendencies through the next several decades toward a technetronic era, a dictatorship, leaving even less room for political procedures as we know them. Finally, looking ahead to the end of the century, the possibility of biochemical mind control and genetic tinkering with man, including beings which will function like men and reason with them as well, could give rise to some difficult questions. Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Technetronic Era, 1969
Society dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific know-how. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. ibid.
Wasn’t Saddam destroyed? Wasn’t Gaddafi liquidated? Didn’t Milosevic go to the Hague? All true. But Stalin survived. Kim Jong-un isn’t doing too badly either – though that’s probably because he actually has nuclear weapons, as opposed to Iran which might or might not be trying to acquire them and thus remains on the Israeli-American target list. Robert Fisk
If this were a dictatorship it would be a heck of a lot easier. Just so long as I’m the dictator. George W Bush, CNN December 200
There comes a point when you can’t support your favourite dictator any more. Professor Noam Chomsky, interview BBC March 2011
Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the US media. Noam Chomsky
Romania, which had the worst dictator in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu, he was a darling of the West. The United States and Britain loved him. He was supported until the last minute. Noam Chomsky
I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system. Noam Chomsky
Suharto ranks right along with Saddam Hussein as one of the worst mass murderers and torturers of the latter part of the twentieth century. Noam Chomsky, lecture Merrimack College, ‘The Onslaught Against Freedom and Democracy Led by the Bush Administration Reactionaries’
The majority have always supported the dictator ... There is no common ground with tyranny. Jordan Maxwell, interview Alex Jones 29th November 2005
Democracy consists of choosing your dictators after they’ve told you what you think it is you want to hear. Alan Coren
I can never consent to being dictated to. John Tyler
Dictators are rulers who always look good until the last ten minutes. John Masaryk
The Leader is suffering from a terrific handicap – he has no head or body. Sleeper 1973 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & John Beck & Marya Small & Susan Miller & Mary Gregory & Don Keefer & Peter Hobbs & John McLiam & Bartlett Robinson & Chris Forbes & et al, director Woody Allen
It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power, each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. Herbert Hoover
The first thing every would-be dictator does is to invoke a terrifying internal and external threat. Naomi Wolf, The End of America, address 11th October 2007
The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors ... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same. George Orwell, 1984
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness; only power, pure power ... Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. ibid.
Always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever. ibid.
My relationship to power and authority is that I am all for it. People need somebody to watch over them ... 95% of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave. Arnold Schwarzenegger, interview US News 1990