A free nation can have a liberator; a subjugated nation can only have another oppressor. For any man who has enough strength to drive out the one who is already the absolute master in a state has enough to become one himself.
[tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

A free nation can have a liberator; a subjugated nation can only have another oppressor. For any man who has enough force to drive out him who is already the absolute master in a state has enough to become the master himself.
[tr. Stewart (2018)]

What juster cause is there for waging war than the wish to repel slavery? in which, even if one's master be not tyrannical, yet it is a most miserable thing that he should be able to be so if he chooses.
[tr. Yonge (1903)]

Is there any better reason for waging war than to ward off slavery? In slavery, even if the master is not oppressive, the sorry thing still is that he can be if he wishes.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

What cause for war is more just than the repulsion of slavery? even under a benign master, it is miserable that he has the power, if he wants to use it.
[tr. Wiseman]

The past, it is true, is very strong at the present hour. It is reviving. This revivification of a corpse is surprising. Here it is walking and advancing. It seems victorious; this dead man is a conqueror. He comes with his legion, the superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his banner, ignorance; within a little time he has won ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our doors.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

The past, we grant, is very powerful at the present hour, and is beginning again. This rejuvenescence of a corpse is surprising, yet here it is, marching straight toward us. The dead man appears a victor, and is a conqueror; he arrives with his legion, superstitions; with his sword, despotism; with his banner, ignorance; and during sometime past he has gained ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our gates.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

The past is very strong, it is true, at the present moment. It censures. This rejuvenation of a corpse is surprising. Behold, it is walking and advancing. It seems a victor; this dead body is a conqueror. He arrives with his legions, superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his banner, ignorance; a while ago, he won ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our doors.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

The past, it is true, is very strong right now. It is reviving. This revivification of a corpse is surprising. Here it is walking and advancing. It seems victorious; this dead man is a conqueror. He comes with his legion, superstitions, with his sword, despotism, with his banner, ignorance; within a little time he has won ten battles. He advances, he threatens, he laughs, he is at our door.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

At the moment, it is true, the past is very strong. It is reviving. This rejuvenation of a corpse is astounding. Back on its feet again, here it comes. It looks victorious. This defunct is a conqueror, it arrives with its legion -- superstitions -- with its sword -- despotism -- with its banner -- ignorance. Recently, it has won a dozen battles. It is advancing, threatening, laughing, it is at our gates.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]

Dorothy Parker, the writer, said that when she viewed a committee session last week it was "incredibly hideous, as though the Gestapo were there, and fascism was there."
"Fascism isn't coming here -- it is here," she declared. Miss Parker said the Hollywood investigation was "shocking, dreadful, terrifying."

Even now, at the edge of the tomb,
I believe in the virtuous fate, --
And the spirit of goodness will soon
overcome all the malice and hate.
[tr. Kneller]

But even as my grave awaits,
the time will come. I've believed --
The forces of meanness and hate
will be vanquished by the spirit of good.
[tr. Mager]

Yet, as I approach my passing,
I believe the day is near,
When the heart of good surpasses
rage and baseness -- even here.
[tr. Moreton]

Even in my dying hour
I believe it still stronger:
Malice will be overpowered
By the spirit of Good Will.
[tr. Astrakhan]

It is well enough in those who by open force have reduced any nation, and accordingly rule it with a high hand, if they do sometimes use rigour and severity, like masters towards their slaves when there is no other way of holding them in subjection: but for those who are magistrates in a free city, to endeavour to make themselves feared by the people, is one of the maddest and most desperate attempts on the face of the earth. [...] Let us therefore embrace and adhere to that method which is of the most universal influence, and serves not only to secure us what we have, but moreover to enlarge our power and authority; that is, in short, let us rather endeavour to be loved than feared, which is certainly the best way to make us successful, as well in our private as our public business.
[tr. Cockman (1699)]

But the truth is, cruelty must be employed by those who keep others in subjection by force; as by a master to his slaves, if they cannot otherwise be managed. But of all madmen, they are the maddest who, in a free state so conduct themselves as to be feared. [...] We ought therefore to follow this most obvious principle, that dread should be removed and affection reconciled, which has the greatest influence not only on our security but also on our interest and power; and thus we shall most easily attain to the object of our wishes, both in private and political affairs.
[tr. Edmonds (1865)]

Those who hold under their command subjects forcibly kept down must indeed resort to severity, as masters toward their slaves when they cannot otherwise be restrained. But nothing can be more mad than the policy of those who in a free state conduct themselves in such a way as to be feared. [...] Let us then embrace the policy which has the widest scope, and is most conducive, not to safety alone, but to affluence and power, namely, that by which fear may be suppressed, love retained. Thus shall we most easily obtain what we desire both in private and in public life.
[tr. Peabody (1883)]

Let tyrants exercise cruelty, as a master does towards his slaves when he cannot control them by other means: but for a Citizen of a free State to equip himself with the weapons of intimidation is the height of madness. [...] Let us then put away fear and cleave to love; love appeals to every heart, it is the surest means of gaining safety, influence and power; in a word, it is the key to success both in private and in public life.
[tr. Gardiner (1899)]

But those who keep subjects in check by force would of course have to employ severity -- masters, for example, toward their servants, when these cannot be held in control in any other way. But those who in a free state deliberately put themselves in a position to be feared are the maddest of the mad. [...] Let us, then, embrace this policy, which appeals to every heart and is the strongest support not only of security but also of influence and power -- namely, to banish fear and cleave to love. And thus we shall most easily secure success both in private and in public life.
[tr. Miller (1913)]

Men who dominate and command other men, whom they have subjugated by force, have to apply some harshness, just as the owner uses harshness toward his slaves if he cannot control them any other way. But it is completely senseless for men in a free city act in such a way that it causes others to live in fear: no one could be more insane. [...] So let us embrace a rule that applies widely and that is extremely effective not only maintaining safety but also in acquiring wealth and power, namely, that there should be no fear, that one should hold affection dear. This is the easiest way for ust to attain what we want both in private affairs and in the government.
[tr. Edinger (1974)]

• "Also he should impoverish his subjects; he thus provides against the maintenance of a guard by the citizen and the people, having to keep hard at work, are prevented from conspiring." [tr. Jowett (1885)]


• "And it is a device of tyranny to make the subjects poor, so that a guard may not be kept, and also that the people being busy with their daily affairs may not have leisure to plot against their ruler." [tr. Rackham (1932)]


• "It is also a feature of tyranny to make the ruled poor, so that they cannot sustain their own defense, and are so occupied with their daily needs that they lack the leisure to conspire." [tr. Lord (1984)]


• "It is also in the interests of a tyrant to make his subjects poor, so that he may be able to afford the cost of his bodyguard, while the people are so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for plotting."


]]> https://wist.info/aristotle/45567/feed/ 0 45567 https://wist.info/garfield-james-a/43961/ https://wist.info/garfield-james-a/43961/#respond Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:58:57 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43961 There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen.

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
Inaugural address (4 Mar 1881)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/garfield-james-a/43961/feed/ 0 43961 https://wist.info/polk-james-k/43797/ https://wist.info/polk-james-k/43797/#respond Wed, 21 Oct 2020 14:51:28 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=43797 By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.

James K. Polk (1795-1849) American lawyer, politician, US President (1845-1849)
Inaugural Address (4 Mar 1845)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/polk-james-k/43797/feed/ 0 43797 https://wist.info/lenclos-ninon-de/42968/ https://wist.info/lenclos-ninon-de/42968/#respond Tue, 25 Aug 2020 14:41:41 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42968 How unhappy are women! Their own sex their most inveterate enemy. An husband tyrannizes; a lover dishonors and despises them. Watched on all sides, thwarted in all things; ever in fear and in constraint; without support or succour; with a number of lovers but not one friend. Is it then to be wondered at that they should become a compound of humor, dissimulation, and caprice?

Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos (1620-1705) French author, courtesan, patron of the arts [Ninon de Lenclos, Ninon de Lanclos]
The Memoirs of Ninon de L’Enclos, Vol. 1, “Life and Character” (1761)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lenclos-ninon-de/42968/feed/ 0 42968 https://wist.info/eisenberg-leon/42781/ https://wist.info/eisenberg-leon/42781/#respond Tue, 04 Aug 2020 17:01:49 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42781 To believe that man’s aggressiveness or territoriality is in the nature of the beast is to mistake some men for all men, contemporary society for all possible societies, and, by a remarkable transformation, to justify what is as what needs must be; social repression becomes a response to, rather than a cause of, human violence.

Leon Eisenberg (1922-2009) American psychiatrist and medical educator
“The Human Nature of Human Nature,” Science (14 Apr 1972)
    (Source)

Based on an address at Faculty of Medicine Day, McGill University Sesquicentennial Celebration, Montreal, Canada (1 Oct 1971). ]]> https://wist.info/eisenberg-leon/42781/feed/ 0 42781 https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/42760/ https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/42760/#respond Mon, 03 Aug 2020 21:31:31 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=42760 A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he cannot sit in it.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
Lecture 22, Gifford Lectures, University of St Andrews, Scotland (1918)
    (Source)

Reprinted in Philosophy of Plotinus, Vol. 2 (1923). ]]> https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/42760/feed/ 0 42760 https://wist.info/shear-marie/41729/ https://wist.info/shear-marie/41729/#respond Thu, 14 May 2020 21:12:10 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41729 Lesbian: Any uppity woman, regardless of sexual preference. If they don’t call you a lesbian, you’re probably not accomplishing anything.

Marie Shear (1940-2017) American writer and feminist activist
“Media Watch: Celebrating Women’s Words,” New Directions for Women (May/Jun 1986)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/shear-marie/41729/feed/ 0 41729 https://wist.info/shear-marie/41518/ https://wist.info/shear-marie/41518/#respond Thu, 30 Apr 2020 21:19:47 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=41518 Ridicule: After rape, the second most powerful method of controlling women.

Marie Shear (1940-2017) American writer and feminist activist
“Media Watch: Celebrating Women’s Words,” New Directions for Women (May/Jun 1986)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/shear-marie/41518/feed/ 0 41518 https://wist.info/bible-ot/40740/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/40740/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2020 18:17:13 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=40740 You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful vineyards you plant. I know how terrible your sins are and how many crimes you have committed. You persecute good people, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts. And so, keeping quiet in such evil times is the smart thing to do! Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is.

לָ֠כֵ֠ן יַ֣עַן בּוֹשַׁסְכֶ֞ם עַל־דָּ֗ל וּמַשְׂאַת־בַּר֙ תִּקְח֣וּ מִמֶּ֔נּוּ בָּתֵּ֥י גָזִ֛ית בְּנִיתֶ֖ם וְלֹא־תֵ֣שְׁבוּ בָ֑ם כַּרְמֵי־חֶ֣מֶד נְטַעְתֶּ֔ם וְלֹ֥א תִשְׁתּ֖וּ אֶת־יֵינָֽם׃
כִּ֤י יָדַ֙עְתִּי֙ רַבִּ֣ים פִּשְׁעֵיכֶ֔ם וַעֲצֻמִ֖ים חַטֹּאתֵיכֶ֑ם צֹרְרֵ֤י צַדִּיק֙ לֹ֣קְחֵי כֹ֔פֶר וְאֶבְיוֹנִ֖ים בַּשַּׁ֥עַר הִטּֽוּ׃
לָכֵ֗ן הַמַּשְׂכִּ֛יל בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖יא יִדֹּ֑ם כִּ֛י עֵ֥ת רָעָ֖ה הִֽיא׃
דִּרְשׁוּ־ט֥וֹב וְאַל־רָ֖ע לְמַ֣עַן תִּֽחְי֑וּ וִיהִי־כֵ֞ן יְהֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֵֽי־צְבָא֛וֹת אִתְּכֶ֖ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲמַרְתֶּֽם׃


The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 30. Amos 5:11ff (Amos 5:11-14) [tr. GNT (1976)]
    (Source)

(Source (Hebrew)). Alternate translations:



Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
[KJV (1611)]




Well then, since you have trampled on the poor man, extorting levies on his wheat -- those houses you have built of dressed stone, you will never live in them; and those precious vineyards you have planted, you will never drink their wine. For I know that your crimes are many, and your sins enormous: persecutors of the virtuous, blackmailers, turning away the needy at the city gate. No wonder the prudent man keeps silent, the times are so evil. Seek good and not evil so that you may live, and that Yahweh, God of Sabaoth, may really be with you as you claim he is.
[JB (1966)]




Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins -- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate. Therefore the prudent will keep silent in such a time; for it is an evil time. Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]




Assuredly,
Because you impose a tax on the poor
And exact from them a levy of grain,
You have built houses of hewn stone,
But you shall not live in them;
You have planted delightful vineyards,
But shall not drink their wine.
For I have noted how many are your crimes,
And how countless your sins --
You enemies of the righteous,
You takers of bribes,
You who subvert in the gate
The cause of the needy!
Assuredly,
At such a time the prudent keep silent,
For it is an evil time.
Seek good and not evil,
That you may live,
And that the ETERNAL, the God of Hosts,
May truly be with you,
As you think.
[RJPS (2006)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/40740/feed/ 0 40740 https://wist.info/baldwin-james/39926/ https://wist.info/baldwin-james/39926/#respond Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:32:29 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39926 Let me point out to you that freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be. One hasn’t got to have an enormous military in order to be unfree when it’s simpler to be asleep, when it’s simpler to be apathetic, when it’s simpler, in fact, not to want to be free, to think that something else is more important.




James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“Notes for a Hypothetical Novel,” speech, San Francisco College (22 Oct 1960)
    (Source)

Later published in Nobody Knows My Name (1961). ]]> https://wist.info/baldwin-james/39926/feed/ 0 39926 https://wist.info/bible-ot/39465/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/39465/#respond Mon, 27 May 2019 18:54:36 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=39465 Yahweh says this: Practice honesty and integrity; rescue the man who has been wronged from the hands of his oppressor; do not exploit the stranger, the orphan, the widow; do no violence; shed no innocent blood in this place.

כֹּ֣ה ׀ אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֗ה עֲשׂ֤וּ מִשְׁפָּט֙ וּצְדָקָ֔ה וְהַצִּ֥ילוּ גָז֖וּל מִיַּ֣ד עָשׁ֑וֹק וְגֵר֩ יָת֨וֹם וְאַלְמָנָ֤ה אַל־תֹּנוּ֙ אַל־תַּחְמֹ֔סוּ וְדָ֣ם נָקִ֔י אַֽל־תִּשְׁפְּכ֖וּ בַּמָּק֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃


The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 24. Jeremiah 22: 3 (Jer 22:3) [tr. JB (1966)]
    (Source)

(Source (Hebrew)). Alternate translations:



Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
[KJV (1611)]




I, the Lord, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not mistreat or oppress aliens, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place.
[GNT (1976)]




Yahweh says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who has been wronged, do not exploit or ill-treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in this place.
[NJB (1985)]




Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]




Thus said GOD: Do what is just and right; rescue from the defrauder anyone who is robbed; do not wrong the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; commit no lawless act, and do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place.
[RJPS (2023 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/39465/feed/ 0 39465 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/38911/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/38911/#respond Fri, 26 Oct 2018 18:32:04 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38911 Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours its own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich upon the poor.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1787-01-16) to Edward Carrington
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/38911/feed/ 0 38911 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/38617/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/38617/#respond Fri, 13 Apr 2018 23:28:10 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=38617 It is not a threat but a fact of history that if an oppressed people’s pent-up emotions are not nonviolently released, they will be violently released. So let the Negro march. Let him make pilgrimages to city hall. Let him go on freedom rides. And above all, make an effort to understand why he must do this. For if his frustration and despair are allowed to continue piling up, millions of Negroes will seek solace and security in black-nationalist ideologies. And this, inevitably, would lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Playboy interview (Jan 1965)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/38617/feed/ 0 38617 https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/37729/ https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/37729/#respond Tue, 15 Aug 2017 03:09:39 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37729 Sure, there are differences in degree, but we’ve got to stop comparing wounds and go out after the system that does the wounding.




Florynce "Flo" Kennedy (1916-2000) American lawyer, feminist, civil rights activist
(Attributed)

Quoted in Gloria Steinem, "The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq.," Ms. (Mar 1973). ]]> https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/37729/feed/ 0 37729 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37516/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37516/#respond Fri, 14 Jul 2017 23:45:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37516 History unfortunately leaves some people oppressed and some people oppressors. And there are three ways that individuals who are oppressed can deal with their oppression. One of them is to rise up against their oppressors with physical violence and corroding hatred. But oh this isn’t the way. For the danger and the weakness of this method is its futility. Violence creates many more social problems than it solves. And I’ve said, in so many instances, that as the Negro, in particular, and colored peoples all over the world struggle for freedom, if they succumb to the temptation of using violence in their struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and our chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos. Violence isn’t the way.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“Loving Your Enemies,” Sermon, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery (17 Nov 1957)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37516/feed/ 0 37516 https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/37445/ https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/37445/#respond Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:41:13 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37445 Don’t agonize, organize.




Florynce "Flo" Kennedy (1916-2000) American lawyer, feminist, civil rights activist
(Attributed)
    (Source)

Quoted in Gloria Steinem, "The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq.," Ms. (Mar 1973). ]]> https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/37445/feed/ 0 37445 https://wist.info/nkomo-joshua/37386/ https://wist.info/nkomo-joshua/37386/#respond Tue, 04 Jul 2017 21:11:48 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37386 The saddest thing in my life was when I discovered that people can get their freedom from colonial masters and find themselves unfree.

Joshua Nkomo (1917-1999) Zimbawean politician, trade unionist, guerrilla leader
In The Observer (UK) (22 Apr 1984) ]]> https://wist.info/nkomo-joshua/37386/feed/ 0 37386 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37266/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37266/#respond Fri, 16 Jun 2017 20:47:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=37266 We must not seek to use our emerging freedom and our growing power to do the same thing to the white minority that has been done to us for so many centuries. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must not become victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. God is not interested merely in freeing black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“Give Us the Ballot,” Speech, Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, DC (1957)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/37266/feed/ 0 37266 https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/36790/ https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/36790/#respond Tue, 18 Apr 2017 00:28:45 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36790 Oppressed people are frequently very oppressive when first liberated. And why wouldn’t they be? They know best two positions. Somebody’s foot on their neck or their foot on somebody’s neck.

Florynce "Flo" Kennedy (1916-2000) American lawyer, feminist, civil rights activist
“Institutionalized Oppression vs. the Female” (1970) ]]> https://wist.info/kennedy-florynce/36790/feed/ 0 36790 https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/ https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:55:53 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36742 The more laws and orders are made prominent,
The more thieves and bandits there will be.

Lao-tzu (604?-531? BC) Chinese philosopher, poet [also Lao-tse, Laozi]
Tao-te Ching, ch. 57 [tr. Wing-Tsit Chan] ]]> https://wist.info/lao-tzu/36742/feed/ 2 36742 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/36582/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/36582/#respond Fri, 24 Mar 2017 17:30:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36582 Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion. Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see — an opiate of the people.




Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 2 “Montgomery Before the Protest” (1958)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/36582/feed/ 0 36582 https://wist.info/lowell-james-russell/36460/ https://wist.info/lowell-james-russell/36460/#respond Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:52:01 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36460 Democ’acy gives every man
The right to be his own oppressor.




James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
The Bigalow Papers, Second Series, “Ef I a song or two could make,” l. 97 (1867) ]]> https://wist.info/lowell-james-russell/36460/feed/ 0 36460 https://wist.info/miller-walter-m/36056/ https://wist.info/miller-walter-m/36056/#respond Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:32:23 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=36056 Ignorance is king. Many would not profit by his abdication. Many enrich themselves by means of his dark monarchy. They are his Court, and in his name they defraud and govern, enrich themselves and perpetuate their power. Even literacy they fear, for the written word is another channel of communication that might cause their enemies to become united. Their weapons are keen-honed, and they use them with skill. They will press the battle upon the world when their interests are threatened, and the violence which follows will last until the structure of society as it now exists is leveled to rubble, and a new society emerges. I am sorry: But that is how I see it.

Walter M. Miller Jr. (1923-1996) American writer
A Canticle for Leibowitz, “Fiat Lux,” ch. 20 (1959) ]]> https://wist.info/miller-walter-m/36056/feed/ 0 36056 https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/ https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/#respond Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:33:38 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35954 The splendor of the goal of the French Revolution is simultaneously the source of our strength and of our weakness: our strength, because it gives us an ascendancy of truth over falsehood, and of public rights over private interests; our weakness, because it rallies against us all vicious men, all those who in their hearts seek to despoil the people . … It is necessary to stifle the domestic and foreign enemies of the Republic or perish with them. Now in these circumstances, the first maxim of our politics ought to be to lead the people by means of reason and the enemies of the people by terror. If the basis of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue without which terror is murderous, terror without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing else than swift, severe, indomitable justice; it flows, then, from virtue.

Maximilien Robespierre (1758-174) French lawyer, politician, revolutionary leader
Speech, National Convention (7 May 1794)
    (Source)

In a parallel thought, he wrote in On the Principles of Political Morality (1794):

If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace, the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country. ]]> https://wist.info/robespierre-maximilien/35954/feed/ 0 35954 https://wist.info/einstein-albert/35651/ https://wist.info/einstein-albert/35651/#respond Thu, 24 Nov 2016 06:14:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35651 Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to individual writers who, as literary guides of Germany, had written much and often concerning the place of freedom in modern life; but they, too, were mute.

Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.


Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Disputed)

Regarding the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. Originally attributed in S. Parkes Cadman, "The Conflict Between Church And State In The Third Reich," La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (28 Oct 1934), noted as a "free translation" made by a colleague of the writer. Made famous in being quoted in Time (23 Dec 1940). Einstein himself said that he'd said something like this to a journalist, noting that the only German intellectuals supporting individual rights and intellectual freedom in the early Nazi regime were a few churchmen. He later suggested that his words on the matter had been significantly exaggerated, and issued much more critical statements about how the Catholic Church, in particular, had been silent or collaborated with the Nazi regime. More discussion here and here. ]]> https://wist.info/einstein-albert/35651/feed/ 0 35651 https://wist.info/adams-henry/35379/ https://wist.info/adams-henry/35379/#respond Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:01:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=35379 Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

Henry Adams (1838-1918) American journalist, historian, academic, novelist
The Education of Henry Adams, ch. 1 (1907)

Restated by George Will in saying that the value of political parties was that "They organize our animosities." Interview, The Colbert Report (3 Jun 2008) at 6:43. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-henry/35379/feed/ 0 35379 https://wist.info/addison-joseph/34877/ https://wist.info/addison-joseph/34877/#respond Wed, 24 Aug 2016 00:18:21 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=34877 CATO: Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 139ff (1713)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/addison-joseph/34877/feed/ 0 34877 https://wist.info/blunt-wilfred/33952/ https://wist.info/blunt-wilfred/33952/#respond Thu, 26 May 2016 14:01:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=33952 The old century is very nearly out, and leaves the world in a pretty pass, and the British Empire is playing the devil in it as never an empire before on so large a scale. We may live to see its fall. All the nations of Europe are making the same hell upon earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping in the captured cities as outrageously as in the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany gives the word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and approves. In South Africa our troops are burning farms under Kitchener’s command, and the Queen and the two houses of Parliament, and the bench of bishops thank God publicly and vote money for the work. The Americans are spending fifty millions a year on slaughtering the Filipinos; the King of the Belgians has invested his whole fortune on the Congo, where he is brutalizing the Negroes to fill his pockets. The French and Italians for the moment are playing a less prominent part in the slaughter, but their inactivity grieves them. The whole white race is reveling openly in violence, as though it had never pretended to be Christian. God’s equal curse be on them all! So ends the famous nineteenth century into which we were so proud to have been born.

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) English poet, critic, horse breeder
My Diaries, 1888-1914, 22 Dec 1900 (1921)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/blunt-wilfred/33952/feed/ 0 33952 https://wist.info/mencken-hl/32925/ https://wist.info/mencken-hl/32925/#respond Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:38:47 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32925 The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true desserts. He ascribes all his failure to get on in the world, all of his congenital incapacity and damnfoolishness, to the machinations of werewolves assembled in Wall Street, or some other such den of infamy. If these villains could be put down, he holds, he would at once become rich, powerful and eminent. Nine politicians out of every ten, of whatever party, live and have their being by promising to perform
this putting down. In brief, they are knaves who maintain themselves by preying on the idiotic vanities and pathetic hopes of half-wits.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
Baltimore Evening Sun (15 Jun 1936) ]]> https://wist.info/mencken-hl/32925/feed/ 0 32925 https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32813/ https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32813/#respond Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:59:46 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32813 The oppression of women knows no ethnic nor racial boundaries, true, but that does not mean it is identical within those boundaries.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) American writer, feminist, civil rights activist
“An Open Letter to Mary Daly” (6 May 1979)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32813/feed/ 0 32813 https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/32487/ https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/32487/#respond Thu, 04 Feb 2016 15:12:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32487 If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years.




Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Interview by Seth King, New York Times (1961-05-18)

Interview on his 89th Birthday. The article does not presently show up in the NYT archives, but the quotation is mentioned in Newsweek, "Newsmakers" (1961-05-29), and in Think Magazine, "Thoughts" (1961-12). ]]> https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/32487/feed/ 0 32487 https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32367/ https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32367/#respond Mon, 01 Feb 2016 14:46:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32367 For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.

Audre Lorde (1934-1992) American writer, feminist, civil rights activist
“The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1979)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32367/feed/ 0 32367 https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/32205/ https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/32205/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:52:30 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32205 The history of the Jews also shows that oppression and persecution are far more efficacious in binding a nation together than community of interest and national prosperity. Increase of wealth divides rather than unites a people; but suffering shared in common binds it together with hoops of steel.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Patriotism,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1915) ]]> https://wist.info/inge-william-ralph/32205/feed/ 1 32205 https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32118/ https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32118/#respond Mon, 11 Jan 2016 17:57:20 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=32118 The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations that we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us.




Audre Lorde (1934-1992) American writer, feminist, civil rights activist
“Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Copeland Colloquium, Amherst College (Apr 1980)

Reprinted in Sister Outsider (1984) ]]> https://wist.info/lorde-audre/32118/feed/ 0 32118 https://wist.info/washington-booker-t/31768/ https://wist.info/washington-booker-t/31768/#respond Tue, 08 Dec 2015 14:26:05 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31768 I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) American educator, writer
Up from Slavery, ch. 11 (1901)
    (Source)

This has been paraphrased in various ways, and is the source of Martin Luther King, Jr's quote he attributed to Washington: "Let no man pull you so low as to make you hate him" (e.g., Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 6 (1958)). King used this or variants of this paraphrase frequently in his speeches, though it was only in his early activism that he referenced Washington by name. ]]> https://wist.info/washington-booker-t/31768/feed/ 0 31768 https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/31526/ https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/31526/#respond Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:50:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=31526 When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!”
When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible.
When sufferings become unendurable the cries are no longer heard.
The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
“When evil-doing comes like falling rain [Wenn die Untat kommt, wie der Regen fällt]” (1935) [tr. Willett] ]]> https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/31526/feed/ 0 31526 https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/ https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/#respond Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:05:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30895 POLLY PEACHUM: The law is simply and solely made for the exploitation of those who do not understand it or of those who, for naked need, cannot obey it.

Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) German poet, playwright, director, dramaturgist
Die Dreigroschenoper [The Three-Penny Opera], Act 3, sc. 1 (1928)

Alt. trans.: "The law was made for one thing alone, for the exploitation of those who don't understand it, or are prevented by naked misery from obeying it." ]]> https://wist.info/brecht-berthold/30895/feed/ 0 30895 https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/30630/ https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/30630/#respond Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:20:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=30630 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1857-08-04) on West India Emancipation, Ontario County Agricultural Society fairgrounds, Canandaigua, New York
    (Source)

Commemorating the anniversary of the emancipation of British West Indian slaves in 1834. ]]> https://wist.info/douglass-frederick/30630/feed/ 0 30630 https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/28088/ https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/28088/#respond Wed, 21 Jan 2015 14:09:09 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=28088 The doctrine which, from the very first origin of religious dissensions, has been held by bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: — I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me, for it is your duty to tolerate truth; but when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you, for it is my duty to persecute error.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859) English writer and politician
“Sir James Mackintosh’s History of the Revolution,” Edinburgh Review (Jul 1835)
    (Source)

Review of James Mackintosh, History of the Revolution in England, in 1638 (1834). ]]> https://wist.info/macaulay-thomas-babington/28088/feed/ 0 28088 https://wist.info/morgan-robin/26453/ https://wist.info/morgan-robin/26453/#respond Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:22:48 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=26453 Silence is the first thing within the power of the enslaved to shatter. From that shattering, everything else spills forth.

Robin Morgan (b. 1941) American poet, author, activist, journalist
The Demon Lover, ch. 10 (1989) ]]> https://wist.info/morgan-robin/26453/feed/ 0 26453 https://wist.info/proudhon-pierre-joseph/24772/ https://wist.info/proudhon-pierre-joseph/24772/#respond Thu, 03 Apr 2014 12:20:06 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=24772 Would you deliver people into bondage? Persuade them to despise one another, destroy their mutual respect.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) French politician, economist, philospher, anarchist
Of Justice in the Revolution and the Church [De la justice dans la révolution et dans l’Eglise] (1858) ]]> https://wist.info/proudhon-pierre-joseph/24772/feed/ 0 24772 https://wist.info/pasternak-boris/24146/ https://wist.info/pasternak-boris/24146/#respond Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:12:46 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=24146 I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats — any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death — then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. But don’t you see, this is just the point — what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the powerful attraction of its example.

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator
Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 1, ch. 2 “A Girl from a Different World” [Nikolai] (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]
    (Source)

Alternate translations:



I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats -- any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death -- then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the self-sacrificing preacher. But don’t you see, this is just the point -- what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the attraction of its example.
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed.]




I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats -- any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death -- then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. But this is just the point -- what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel, but an inward music -- the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
[tr. Hayward & Harrai (1958); edited version quoted by Ronald Reagan, Moscow State University (1988-05-31)]




I think that if the beast dormant in man could be stopped by the threat of, whatever, the lockup or requital beyond the grave, the highest emblem of mankind would be a lion tamer with his whip, and not the preacher who sacrifices himself. But the point is precisely this, that for centuries man has been raised above the animals and borne aloft not by the rod, but by music: the irresistibility of the unarmed truth, the attraction of its example.
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010), "A Girl from a Different Circle"]


]]> https://wist.info/pasternak-boris/24146/feed/ 0 24146 https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/21797/ https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/21797/#respond Thu, 01 Aug 2013 17:34:21 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21797 What an effort, my dear Sir, of bigotry in Politics & Religion have we gone through. The barbarians really flattered themselves they should even be able to bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignorance put every thing into the hands of power & priestcraft. All advances in science were proscribed as innovations. They pretended to praise & encourage education, but it was to be vain the education of our ancestors. We were to look backwards not forwards for improvement, the President himself declaring in one of his answers to addresses that we were never to expect to go beyond them in real science. This was the real ground of all the attacks on you: those who live by mystery & charlatanerie, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy, the most sublime & benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on man, endeavored to crush your well earnt, & well deserved fame.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1801-03-21) to Joseph Priestley
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jefferson-thomas/21797/feed/ 0 21797 https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/21783/ https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/21783/#respond Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:10:48 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21783 In political institutions, almost everything we call an abuse was once a remedy.

[Presque tout ce que nous appelons un abus fut un remède dans les institutions politiques.]


Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 18 “Du Siècle [On the Age],” ¶ 21 (1850 ed.) [tr. Auster (1983), 1813 entry]
    (Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translation:



In political institutions nearly everything that we now call an abuse, was once a remedy.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 17, ¶ 8]


]]> https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/21783/feed/ 0 21783 https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/21282/ https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/21282/#respond Wed, 29 May 2013 11:33:03 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=21282 The central fact of American civilization — one so hard for others to understand — is that freedom and justice and the dignity of man are not just words to us. We believe in them. Under all the growth and the tumult and abundance, we believe. And so, as long as some among us are oppressed — and we are part of that oppression — it must blunt our faith and sap the strength of our high purpose.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-08-06), Signing of the Voting Rights Act, Washington, D.C.
    (Source)

(Source (Video)) ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/21282/feed/ 0 21282 https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/20578/ https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/20578/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:36:40 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20578 The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-08-06), Signing of the Voting Rights Act, Washington, D.C.
    (Source)

(Source (Video) at 15:15) ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/20578/feed/ 0 20578 https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/20119/ https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/20119/#respond Wed, 16 Jan 2013 12:58:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=20119 If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.




Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1960)
    (Source)

Discussing racist graffiti in Tennessee, seen earlier in the day. Recalled in Bill Moyers, "What a Real President Was Like," Washington Post (1988-11-13).

More discussion here: Did Lyndon B. Johnson Say This About The 'Lowest White Man' and 'Best Colored Man'? | Snopes.com. ]]> https://wist.info/johnson-lyndon/20119/feed/ 0 20119 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17353/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17353/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:44:57 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17353 Gentlemen, you can never make me believe — no statute can ever convince me, that there is any infinite Being in this universe who hates an honest man. It is impossible to satisfy me that there is any God, or can be any God, who holds in abhorrence a soul that has the courage to express his thought. Neither can the whole world convince me that any man should be punished, either in this world or in the next, for being candid with his fellow-men. If you send men to the penitentiary for speaking their thoughts, for endeavoring to enlighten their fellows, then the penitentiary will become a place of honor, and the victim will step from it — not stained, not disgraced, but clad in robes of glory.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17353/feed/ 0 17353 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17268/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17268/#respond Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:13:12 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=17268 What is blasphemy? I will give you a definition; I will give you my thought upon this subject. What is real blasphemy?
To live on the unpaid labor of other men — that is blasphemy.
To enslave your fellow-man, to put chains upon his body — that is blasphemy.
To enslave the minds of men, to put manacles upon the brain, padlocks upon the lips — that is blasphemy.
To deny what you believe to be true, to admit to be true what you believe to be a lie — that is blasphemy.
To strike the weak and unprotected, in order that you may gain the applause of the ignorant and superstitious mob — that is blasphemy.
To persecute the intelligent few, at the command of the ignorant many — that is blasphemy.
To forge chains, to build dungeons, for your honest fellow-men — that is blasphemy.
To pollute the souls of children with the dogma of eternal pain — that is blasphemy.
To violate your conscience — that is blasphemy.
The jury that gives an unjust verdict, and the judge who pronounces an unjust sentence, are blasphemers.
The man who bows to public opinion against his better judgment and against his honest conviction, is a blasphemer.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/17268/feed/ 0 17268 https://wist.info/beauvoir-simone-de/16744/ https://wist.info/beauvoir-simone-de/16744/#respond Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:35:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16744 One of the benefits that oppression confers upon the oppressors is that the most humble among them is made to feel superior; thus, a poor white in the South can console himself with the thought that he is not a “dirty nigger” — and the more prosperous whites cleverly exploit this pride. Similarly, the most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) French author, existentialist philosopher, feminist theorist
The Second Sex, Introduction (1950) [tr. Parshley (1952)]

See Johnson. ]]> https://wist.info/beauvoir-simone-de/16744/feed/ 0 16744 https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/16723/ https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/16723/#respond Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:17:44 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16723 The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.

Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941-54), lawyer, jurist, politician
Krulewitch v. United States, 336 U.S. 440, 458 (1949) [concurring]
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/jackson-robert-h/16723/feed/ 0 16723 https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/16549/ https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/16549/#respond Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:09:36 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16549 To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother’s keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right. It is a way of allowing his conscience to fall asleep. At this moment the oppressed fails to be his brother’s keeper. So acquiescence — while often the easier way — is not the moral way. It is the way of the coward.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Stride Toward Freedom, ch. 11 “Where Do We Go from Here?” (1958)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/king-martin-luther/16549/feed/ 0 16549 https://wist.info/bacon-francis/16449/ https://wist.info/bacon-francis/16449/#respond Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:39:17 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16449 Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Nature in Men,” Essays, No. 38 (1625)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/bacon-francis/16449/feed/ 0 16449 https://wist.info/tutu-desmond/16082/ https://wist.info/tutu-desmond/16082/#respond Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:25:16 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=16082 If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

Desmond Tutu (1931-2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
(Attributed) ]]> https://wist.info/tutu-desmond/16082/feed/ 0 16082 https://wist.info/bible-ot/14419/ https://wist.info/bible-ot/14419/#respond Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:26:51 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=14419 Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.

ה֥וֹי הַחֹֽקְקִ֖ים חִקְקֵי־אָ֑וֶן וּֽמְכַתְּבִ֥ים עָמָ֖ל כִּתֵּֽבוּ׃
לְהַטּ֤וֹת מִדִּין֙ דַּלִּ֔ים וְלִגְזֹ֕ל מִשְׁפַּ֖ט עֲנִיֵּ֣י עַמִּ֑י לִֽהְי֤וֹת אַלְמָנוֹת֙ שְׁלָלָ֔ם וְאֶת־יְתוֹמִ֖ים יָבֹֽזּוּ׃
וּמַֽה־תַּעֲשׂוּ֙ לְי֣וֹם פְּקֻדָּ֔ה וּלְשׁוֹאָ֖ה מִמֶּרְחָ֣ק תָּב֑וֹא עַל־מִי֙ תָּנ֣וּסוּ לְעֶזְרָ֔ה וְאָ֥נָה תַעַזְב֖וּ כְּבוֹדְכֶֽם׃
בִּלְתִּ֤י כָרַע֙ תַּ֣חַת אַסִּ֔יר וְתַ֥חַת הֲרוּגִ֖ים יִפֹּ֑לוּ


The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 23. Isaiah 10: 1ff (Isa 10:1-3) [tr. NIV (2011 ed.)]
    (Source)

(Source (Hebrew)). Alternate translations:



Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain.
[KJV (1611)]




You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people. That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans. What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth? You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners.
[GNT (1976)]




Woe to those who enact unjust decrees, who compose oppressive legislation to deny justice to the weak and to cheat the humblest of my people of fair judgement, to make widows their prey and to rob the orphan. What will you do on the day of punishment, when disaster comes from far away? To whom will you run for help and where will you leave your riches, to avoid squatting among the captives or falling among the slain?
[NJB (1985)]




Ha! Those who write out evil writs and compose iniquitous documents, to subvert the cause of the poor, to rob of their rights the needy of My people; that widows may be their spoil, and fatherless children their booty! What will you do on the day of punishment, When the calamity comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help, And how will you save your carcasses from collapsing under [fellow] prisoners, from falling beneath the slain?
[JPS (1985); 10:1-4a]




Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, to make widows their spoil and to plunder orphans! What will you do on the day of punishment, in the calamity that will come from far away? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth, so as not to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain?
[NRSV (1989 ed.)]


]]> https://wist.info/bible-ot/14419/feed/ 0 14419 https://wist.info/wiesel-elie/8029/ https://wist.info/wiesel-elie/8029/#respond Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:37:37 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=8029 I swore to never be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim; silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.




Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) Romanian-American novelist, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate.
Speech (1986-12-10), Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/wiesel-elie/8029/feed/ 0 8029 https://wist.info/angelou-maya/7432/ https://wist.info/angelou-maya/7432/#respond Thu, 28 May 2009 14:42:18 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=7432 You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.




Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American poet, memoirist, activist [b. Marguerite Ann Johnson]
“Still I Rise,” And Still I Rise (1978)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/angelou-maya/7432/feed/ 0 7432 https://wist.info/voltaire/6901/ https://wist.info/voltaire/6901/#respond Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:38:49 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6901 I fear that in this world one must be either hammer or anvil.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Philosophical Dictionary, “Tyranny” (1764) [tr. Gay (1962)]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.: "In this world we run the risk of having to choose between being either the anvil or the hammer." [Baskin (1961)] ]]> https://wist.info/voltaire/6901/feed/ 0 6901 https://wist.info/adams-john/6069/ https://wist.info/adams-john/6069/#respond Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:23:31 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=6069 Obsta principiis, nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people. When the people give way, their deceivers, betrayers, and destroyers press upon them so fast, that there is no resisting afterwards.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Essay (1775-02-06), “Novanglus,” No. 3, Boston Gazette
    (Source)

The Latin means to resist the first approaches or encroachments of a problem.

This series of essays was written by Adams under the pseudonym of "Novanglus" (Latin for "New England") responding to essays from his past friend Daniel Leonard as "Massachusettensis" on colonial leadership and what the proper relationship was between the American colonies and Britain. ]]> https://wist.info/adams-john/6069/feed/ 0 6069 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5990/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5990/#respond Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:30:08 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5990 No orthodox church ever had power that it did not endeavor to make people think its way by force and flame.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5990/feed/ 0 5990 https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5724/ https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5724/#respond Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:06:35 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5724 How has the church in every age, when in authority, defended itself? Always by a statute against blasphemy, against argument, against free speech. And there never was such a statute that did not stain the book that it was in and that did not certify to the savagery of the men who passed it.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/5724/feed/ 0 5724 https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/5134/ https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/5134/#respond Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:41:07 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=5134 We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Letter (1940-01-09) to William Allan Neilson
    (Source)

Neilson was the co-chair of the Sponsor Committee, Fourth Annual Conference of the American Committee for Protection of Foreign-Born. It was read to the conference on 1940-03-01, and entered into the Congressional Record (along with other letters received) on 1940-03-11.

Just over two years later, 1942-02-19, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the evacuation of all persons (which largely meant Japanese-Americans) deemed a national security threat from the West Coast to internment centers further inland. The EO was in effect until rescinded by Roosevelt in 1944-12 after the Supreme Court ruling in Ex parte Endo. ]]> https://wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-delano/5134/feed/ 0 5134 https://wist.info/other/2577/ https://wist.info/other/2577/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=2577 Let’s never forget that we ALL have aspects about us which could cause us to find ourselves on the sharp-edged side of the razorwired fence should the winds of mass hysteria, whipped up from public opinion by demagogues, shift.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Bruce Little, Belief-L ]]> https://wist.info/other/2577/feed/ 0 2577 https://wist.info/frankl-viktor/1505/ https://wist.info/frankl-viktor/1505/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=1505 We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) German-American psychologist, writer
Man’s Search for Meaning, Part 1 (1959)
    (Source) ]]> https://wist.info/frankl-viktor/1505/feed/ 0 1505 https://wist.info/washington-booker-t/4056/ https://wist.info/washington-booker-t/4056/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=4056 One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) American educator, writer
Speech, Republican Club, New York City (12 Feb 1909)
    (Source)

Sometimes paraphrased, "You can't hold a man down without staying down with him." ]]> https://wist.info/washington-booker-t/4056/feed/ 0 4056 https://wist.info/paine-thomas/3064/ https://wist.info/paine-thomas/3064/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3064 An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
“Dissertation on the First Principles of Government” (Jul 1795)

Source essay ]]> https://wist.info/paine-thomas/3064/feed/ 0 3064 https://wist.info/pitt-william/3164/ https://wist.info/pitt-william/3164/#respond Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/wp/?p=3164 It is true, the bill is said to be founded on necessity; but what is this? Is it not necessity, which has always been the plea of every illegal exertion of power, or exercise of oppression? Is not necessity the pretence of every usurpation? Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.




William Pitt (1759-1806) British Prime Minister (1804-06) [William Pitt the Younger]
Speech (1793-11-18), House of Commons, London
    (Source)

Speech on a bill changing the process of governing India. Cf. Milton. ]]> https://wist.info/pitt-william/3164/feed/ 0 3164