» On force and being forced

… eight forceful remarks

’Cause when love is gone, there’s always justice.
And when justice is gone, there’s always force.
And when force is gone, there’s always Mom. Hi Mom!

Laurie Anderson . 1947- . American performance artist and musician . O Superman

No real teacher can doubt that his task is to assist his pupil to fulfill human nature against all the deforming forces of convention and prejudice.

Allan Bloom . 1930-1992 . American philosopher, essayist and academic . The closing of the American mind

Some would say that it is too idealistic to believe in a society based on tolerance and the sanctity of human life, where borders, nationalities and ideologies are of marginal importance. To those I say, this is not idealism, but rather realism, because history has taught us that war rarely resolves our differences. Force does not heal old wounds; it opens new ones.

Mohamed ElBaradei . 1942- . Egyptian diplomat, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency . acceptance speech on behalf of IAEA, Nobel peace prize (2005)

Man is going to be displaced altogether as a specialist by the computer. Man himself is being forced to reestablish, employ, and enjoy his innate ‘comprehensivity’. Coping with the totality of Spaceship Earth and universe is ahead for all of us.

Buckminster Fuller . 1895-1983 . American architect, philosopher, and inventor . Operating manual for Spaceship Earth

Force is the weapon of the weak.

Ammon Hennacy . 1893–1970 . American Christian anarchist and pacifist, and social activist

Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness… Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.

Martin Luther King Jr . 1929-1968 . American Baptist minister and civil rights activist . speech, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama (1957)

I reaffirm and celebrate woman’s ancient mystery and glamour. I see the mother as an overwhelming force who condemns men to lifelong sexual anxiety, from which they escape through rationalism and physical achievement.

Camille Paglia . 1947- . American author, scholar and critic . citation

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

probably Sid Ziff . 1905-1991 . American journalist [this is usually misattributed to Dorothy Parker, though there is no evidence of her writing it, and it was attributed to Ziff in Readers’ Digest in 1960 . research: Quote investigator] . of The cardinal’s mistress by Benito Mussolini

On force and being forced