Democracy | Some revealing quotes

"The power structures that have emerged are not democratically legitimized, and they can no longer be voted out of office through any electoral process. The most important power structures in our society are no longer accessible to the voter at all… and one does not want the ordinary citizen to even know that they exist. They are meant to remain invisible within the framework of public debate." Prof. Rainer Mausfeld

"The fundamental problem with our democracy is that it is not one. The people—the nominal ruler and sovereign—have, in reality, nothing to say. … Behind the democratic façade, a system has been installed in which completely different rules apply than those of the Basic Law. The system is undemocratic and corrupt; it abuses power and unscrupulously deceives citizens. … Every German is free to obey laws to which he has never consented; he may admire the majesty of the Basic Law, whose validity he has never legitimized; he is free to pay homage to politicians whom no citizen has ever elected, and to provide for them lavishly—with his tax money, about the use of which he has never been consulted. Overall, the state and politics are in a condition of which only professional optimists or hypocrites can claim it has arisen from the will of the citizens." Prof. Dr. Hans Herbert von Arnim

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Albert Einstein

"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas." Josef Stalin

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." Henry Louis Mencken

"If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?" Claude Frédéric Bastiat

"With all due respect, you can’t heat houses in winter with nuclear energy. And as if that blatant nonsense weren’t enough, she added: They shouldn’t assume we’re any more foolish than the average person." Claudia Roth

"Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent every year to control the public mind" Noam Chomsky

"It is hardly necessary to point out that the inability of the masses to judge correctly deprives them of any capacity for critical thought—that is, the ability to distinguish truth from error and to form a sound judgment. The judgments adopted by the masses are merely imposed on them and are never the result of careful examination. Many individuals, in this respect, do not rise above the level of the crowd. The ease with which certain opinions become widely accepted is due above all to the inability of most people to form an opinion of their own on the basis of personal reasoning." Gustave Le Bon

"It is the opposition’s job to strip the government of its makeup while the show is still going on." Jacques Chirac

"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root" Henry David Thoreau

"Never let a good crisis go to waste." Winston Churchill

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King

"For almost two years now, an alleged pandemic has had us firmly in its grip. Day after day, the media and politicians bombard us with narratives and measures. It’s time we take a stand against it. This may be our last chance. If we go along with it and they achieve their goal, life here will become very uncomfortable for us and for future generations. I hope that resistance and clarity continue to grow—and that we force an end to it." Tobias Levels