Howard Zinn, R.I.P.
August 24, 1922 - January 27, 2010
If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
Historically, the most terrible things--war, genocide and slavery--have resulted from obedience, not disobedience.
How can you make a war on terror if war itself is terrorism?
I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.
We grow up in a controlled society, where we are told that when one person kills another person, that is murder, but when the government kills a hundred thousand, that is patriotism.
I don't believe it's possible to be neutral. The world is already moving in certain directions. And to be neutral, to be passive, in a situation like that, is to collaborate with what is going on. And I, as a teacher, don't want to be a collaborator.
I don't know if you have the same feeling as I do, when I wake up in the morning and read the paper, and you feel like you are in an occupied country. You feel like some alien group has taken over our country. But those men in the White House, who are making decisions to send young people to kill and to be killed, those people are alien to me.
You remember when Ali fought Foreman ? He seemed asleep. But when he woke up, he was ferocious. And so will the people - wake up!
If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.
Historically, the most terrible things--war, genocide and slavery--have resulted from obedience, not disobedience.
How can you make a war on terror if war itself is terrorism?
I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president--which means, in our time, a dangerous president--unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.
We grow up in a controlled society, where we are told that when one person kills another person, that is murder, but when the government kills a hundred thousand, that is patriotism.
I don't believe it's possible to be neutral. The world is already moving in certain directions. And to be neutral, to be passive, in a situation like that, is to collaborate with what is going on. And I, as a teacher, don't want to be a collaborator.
I don't know if you have the same feeling as I do, when I wake up in the morning and read the paper, and you feel like you are in an occupied country. You feel like some alien group has taken over our country. But those men in the White House, who are making decisions to send young people to kill and to be killed, those people are alien to me.
You remember when Ali fought Foreman ? He seemed asleep. But when he woke up, he was ferocious. And so will the people - wake up!
posted by TLC's Place at 12:10 PM
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