» Being subversive

Subversive remarks, for me, are those which seek to dismiss a widely-held belief. For maximum effect, this should be a widely cherished belief, held dear by some who are—or should be—genuinely shocked by the revelation. At least, they should cause a response, “Of course, that’s how it is! How could I have not seen it?”

It is undoubtedly necessary for the ambassador occasionally to mask his game; but it should be done so as not to awaken suspicion and he ought also to be prepared with an answer in case of discovery.

Niccolò Machiavelli . 1469-1527 . Florentine political philosopher, historian, musician and poet . instructions to diplomat Raffaello Girolami

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

HL Mencken . 1880-1956 . American journalist, satirist and freethinker . Prejudices, first series

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.

Michel de Montaigne . 1533-1592 . French philosopher and essayist . Essays, book 2

When men yield up the exclusive privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine . 1737-1809 . English-American political writer, theorist and activist . Common sense

The impact of the human tragedies I’ve reported on is that, more often than not, I’ll be angry. I want to know why is this child dying? These are not acts of God; they’re results of respectable politicians’ decisions.

John Pilger . 1939- . English investigative journalist . article, This much I know, The Observer (2005)

In plain, what passes for a curriculum in today’s schools is little else than a strategy of distraction… It is largely defined to keep students from knowing themselves and their environment in any realistic sense.

Neil Postman . 1931-2003 . American educator, media theorist and cultural critic . Teaching as a subversive activity

A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.

BF Skinner . 1904-1990 . American behavioural psychologist and author . Beyond freedom and dignity

We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an instrument of authority and repression.

Susan Sontag . 1933-2004 . American cultural theorist and literary critic . [quoted, Conversations with Susan Sontag (Poague, 1995)]

Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?

Leó Szilárd . 1898-1964 . Hungarian-American physicist . magazine article, US news & world report

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

Alexis de Tocqueville . 1805-1859 . French political thinker and historian . Democracy in America

At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.

Gore Vidal . 1925-2012 . American essayist, novelist, playwright and public intellectual . Homage to Daniel Shays: collected essays

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg . 1933- . American physicist . address to AAAS conference, Washington

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