democracy

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.

I'd like to teach Iraq about Democracy because we're so
experienced with it. First they should know that after 100 years they
should free their slaves. Then after 150 years they should give their
women the right to vote. Oh, and of course when they start it all they
should begin with some genocide and ethnic cleansing.  Kurt Vonnegut-
Appearance on The Daily Show (September 2005)

You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the
freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.

Democracy is a process by which people are free to choose the man who will get the blame

As a citizen, you have a choice between two different paths.

One path is easy. When you turn on the TV or open the newspaper and hear about all the trouble in the world you could walk away from the stories about Iraq or poverty or violence or joblessness or hopelessness.

Just turn it off and tune out. That would be the easiest thing in the world to do. There will be pundits and politicians who will tell you that it’s someone else’s fault and someone else’s problem to fix.

I am not one of them.

There is a second path. This one is more difficult. It asks more of you. It asks you to not just pursue your own individual dreams, but to help perfect our collective dream as a nation. It asks you to realize there is more to life than being rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained. It asks you to recognize that there are people out there who need you.

Religion is an important institution. A nation without religion cannot survive. Yet it is also very important to note that religion is a link between Allah and the individual believer. The brokerage of the pious cannot be permitted. Those who use religion for their own benefit are detestable. We are against such a situation and will not allow it. Those who use religion in such a manner have fooled our people; it is against just such people that we have fought and will continue to fight. Know that whatever conforms to reason, logic, and the advantages and needs of our people conforms equally to Islam. If our religion did not conform to reason and logic, it would not be the perfect religion, the final religion.

Capitalism is the bastard child of democracy.

I don’t think we’ve found a way to promote economic and political integration in a manner that benefits the vast majority of people in all societies…

In the end if you want to promote democracy and you believe in it, then you have to understand that voters usually see these grand political issues through the prism of their own experience, how it impacts themselves, their families, their communities, how they imagine their children will live. … If ordinary people don’t perceive that our grand ideas are working in their lives, then they can’t develop, the higher level of consciousness, if I can use a kind of touchy-feely word, that American philosopher Ken Wilber wrote a whole book about, called A Theory of Everything. He said, you know, the problem is the world needs to be more integrated but it requires a consciousness that’s way up here, and an ability to see beyond the differences among us. So I worry about that.

Democracy deserves the best thinking possible. … The right of an individual to create new ideas and to expect a respectful, supportive climate for their expression is a human right too often ignored. The human right to think and be heard at higher, more complex and mutualistic levels is a necessary added freedom if diversity of religion or belief is to be guaranteed for the diverse human family.

“Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease”