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Howard Zinn-Civil Disobedience

peacefrompaulpeacefrompaul Posts: 25,293
edited June 2012 in A Moving Train
Powerful quote, I love it... Makes a lot of sense to me

“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
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Comments

  • MookiesLawMookiesLaw Posts: 158
    "Let's remember that even when there is a 'better' candidate (yes, better Roosevelt than Hoover, better anyone than George Bush), that difference will not mean anything unless the power of the people asserts itself in ways that the occupant of the White House will find it dangerous to ignore.....Today, we can be sure that the Democratic Party, unless it faces a popular upsurge, will not move off center. The two leading Presidential candidates have made it clear that if elected, they will not bring an immediate end to the Iraq War, or institute a system of free health care for all."

    "They offer no radical change from the status quo. They do not propose what the present desperation of people cries out for: a government guarantee of jobs to everyone who needs one, a minimum income for every household, housing relief to everyone who faces eviction or foreclosure. They do not suggest the deep cuts in the military budget or the radical changes in the tax system that would free billions, even trillions, for social programs to transform the way we live."

    "None of this should surprise us. The Democratic Party has broken with its historic conservatism, its pandering to the rich, its predilection for war, only when it has encountered rebellion from below, as in the Thirties and the Sixties."


    Long live Howard Zinn.
  • ComeToTXComeToTX Austin Posts: 7,872
    peacefrompaul wrote:
    Powerful quote, I love it... Makes a lot of sense to me

    “Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”

    Great quote. Agree 100%
    This show, another show, a show here and a show there.
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,426
    Excellent quote from the great Mr. Zinn. Thanks for posting it, Paul.
    "Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
    -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"

    "Try to not spook the horse."
    -Neil Young













  • gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 23,303
    this country could use a dose of new zinn material but that is something that we will forver be lacking from now on.
    "You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry."  - Lincoln

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
  • peacefrompaulpeacefrompaul Posts: 25,293
    gimmesometruth27 wrote:
    this country could use a dose of new zinn material but that is something that we will forver be lacking from now on.

    He certainly makes you think...



    Something so many are unwilling to do
  • peacefrompaulpeacefrompaul Posts: 25,293
    brianlux wrote:
    Excellent quote from the great Mr. Zinn. Thanks for posting it, Paul.

    You are most welcome, Brian. Enjoy!
  • RW81233RW81233 Posts: 2,393
    Henry Giroux was once Howard's colleague in Boston and is very much similar in his work. He's not quite as public as I'd like him to be but his writing is effing good.
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