Content is an obstacle to the exercise of power. John Ralston Saul More Quotes by John Ralston Saul More Quotes From John Ralston Saul The void in our society has been produced by the absence of values... we have no widespread belief in the value of participation. The rational system has made us fear standing out in any serious way. John Ralston Saul our-society vision way Governments produced by the most banal of electoral victories, like those produced by the crudest of coups d'état, will always feel obliged to dress themselves up linguistically in some way. John Ralston Saul victory government dresses Happy family: The existence and maintenance of [this] is thought to make a politician fit for public office. According to this theory, the public are less concerned by whether or not they are effectively represented than by the need to be assured that the penises and vaginas of public officials are only used in legally sanctioned circumstances. John Ralston Saul maintenance office needs Money is not real. John Ralston Saul conscious real agreement Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created John Ralston Saul problem reason inspirational As an inclusive quality, imagination is thus our primary force for progress, whatever progress is. John Ralston Saul progress quality imagination Panic: A highly underrated capacity thanks to which individuals are able to indicate clearly that something is wrong. Given their head, most humans panic with great dignity and imagination. This can be called democratic expression or practical common sense. John Ralston Saul common-sense imagination expression Everyone has an equal right to inequality. John Ralston Saul inequality equal If individuals do not occupy their legitimate position, then it will be occupied by a god or a king or a coalition of interest groups. If citizens do not exercise the powers confered by their legitimacy, others will do so. John Ralston Saul groups kings exercise The transnational corporations and the money markets have declared the era of human-designed regulations over. Now the market must reign. Because few people in the business community are paid to think about phrases such as "Western civilization," they don't seem to realize that they are proposing the arbitrary denial of 2,500 years of human experience. John Ralston Saul civilization years thinking Only when God was said to have died did various leaders, professions and sectors risk pushing themselves forward as successors. John Ralston Saul pushing risk leader There is something silly about grown men and women striving to reduce their vision of themselves and of civilization to bean counting. John Ralston Saul silly men civilization Canada is either an idea or it does not exist. It is either an intellectual undertaking or it is little more than a resource-rich vacuum lying in the buffer zone just north of a great empire. John Ralston Saul intellectual lying ideas It is undoubtedly easier to believe in absolutes, follow blindly, mouth received wisdom. But that is self-betrayal. John Ralston Saul betrayal self believe Obviously we don't have 300 million people. We haven't got a big army. We don't have Hollywood. We're a medium small-sized country. We have to do what medium small-sized countries do, which-even though we're not smarter than other people-is to make ourselves seem to be smarter. We have to work harder and know more than other people. John Ralston Saul army hard-work country United States:. A nation given either to unjustified over-enthusiasms or infantile furies. John Ralston Saul united-states given enthusiasm Freud, Sigmund: A man so dissatisfied with his own mother and father that he devoted his life to convincing everyone who would listen — or better still, talk — that their parents were just as bad. John Ralston Saul mother men father McDonald's is the ultimate symbol of passive conformity. John Ralston Saul passive conformity mcdonalds Venereal: From Venus, the goddess of love, this word refers to the reality of desire. With the rise of Protestantism and science, the word disease was tacked on in a revealing combination of categorization and moralizing. Which disease? The disease of love. John Ralston Saul disease desire reality Faith: The opposite of dogmatism. John Ralston Saul dogmatism opposites
