#Human Nature
"The politics of control and manipulation can only have a degenerative effect on civilization and stability. When larger systems dominate smaller ones, society and its members must face a host of bad choices, debilitating harm, and dicey outcomes. Once the leviathan has been released, few can really control its movements. So once the damage has become visible, historians can point to the inevitable source of the criminality: the ‘structured order’ of politics, rather than an ‘unstructured order’ of the people. To the gullible, this is a shocking revelation. How could any system entrusted with maintaining order destroy the very thing it had sworn to uphold?"
React to this quote
More by L. K. Samuels
See allResonant Thoughts
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them."
— Robert Frost"But sooner or later people will be able to buy a ride into space."
— Bill Anders"Have you never seen human beings acting in a mob-frenzy? Have you never seen a religious rite that tipped p…"
— Adam Roberts"In Vienna, Modernism had three main characteristics. The first was the new view of the human mind as being …"
— Eric Kandel"I was a Great Society liberal on domestic issues. People ask me, 'How do you go from Walter Mondale to Fox …"
— Charles Krauthammer"I have nothing but scorn for the notion of an Islamic bomb. There is no such thing as an Islamic bomb or a …"
— Muammar Gaddafi
Related Thinkers
Related Topics
Deep Dives
- David Cay Johnston on Human Nature
- Norman Angell on Human Nature
- Bernard Lietaer on Human Nature
- Hirohito on Human Nature
- David Cay Johnston on politics
- David Cay Johnston on time
- David Cay Johnston on justice
- David Cay Johnston on life
- David Cay Johnston on knowledge
- David Cay Johnston on art
- knowledge & Beauty
- knowledge & Change