Mencken-based De-Programming
In honor of the start of the Nuremburg Rally portion of our quadrienniel power dance, a few quips from the only modern journalist that Mark Twain might have approved of, H.L.Mencken...
"Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in."
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
"I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant."
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
"Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed."
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable."
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it."
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
"Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it."
"Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in."
"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
"I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant."
"It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."
"Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed."
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable."
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it."
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
"Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it."
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