Peace, Inc. is sometimes as worrying as War, Inc. It's a way of managing public anger. We're all being managed, and we don't even know it. Arundhati Roy More Quotes by Arundhati Roy More Quotes From Arundhati Roy Just a few years ago India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were one country. Actually, we were many countries if you count the princely states.... Then the British drew a line, and now we're three countries, two of them pointing nukes at each other - the radical Hindu bomb and the radical Muslim bomb. Arundhati Roy two country years Her grief grieved her. His devastated her. Arundhati Roy devastated grief the truth is that it's far easier to make a bomb than to educate four hundred million people. Arundhati Roy bombs four people India lives in several centuries at the same time. Arundhati Roy century india The trouble is that once America goes off to war, it can't very well return without having fought one. If it doesn't find its enemy, for the sake of the enraged folks back home, it will have to manufacture one. Once war begins, it will develop a momentum, a logic and a justification of its own, and we'll lose sight of why it's being fought in the first place. Arundhati Roy sight home war The American people ought to know that it is not them, but their government's policies, that are so hated. Arundhati Roy hated government people I think the Occupy movement will, or at least should, become a protean movement of ideas, as well as action, where the element of surprise remains with the protesters. We need to preserve the element of an intellectual ambush and a physical manifestation that takes the government and the police by surprise. It has to keep re-imagining itself, because holding territory may not be something the movement will be allowed to do in a state as powerful and violent as the United States. Arundhati Roy government powerful thinking I never do anything because I'm a celebrity, as a rule. I do what I do as a citizen. Arundhati Roy citizens Non-violence should be a tactic - not an ideology preached from the sidelines to victims of massive violence. Arundhati Roy tactics violence victim People always loved best what they identified most with. Arundhati Roy people Talk loud enough about human rights and it gives the impression of democracy at work, justice at work. There was a time when the United States waged war to topple democracies, because back then democracy was a threat to the Free Market. Countries were nationalising their resources, protecting their markets.... So then, real democracies were being toppled. They were toppled in Iran, they were toppled all across Latin America, Chile. Arundhati Roy real war country I don't want to be a victim. I don't want to disappear into the darkness. Arundhati Roy victim darkness want In India, we have a right wing that is so vicious and so openly wicked, which is the Baratiya Janata party (BJP), and then we have the Congress party, which does almost worse things, but does it by night. And people feel that the only choices they have are to vote for this or for that. And my point is that, whoever you vote for, it doesn't have to consume all the oxygen in the political debate. Arundhati Roy oxygen party night From being a dream, dams have become a very cynical corrupt enterprise; a way of letting governments lay their hands on huge sums of money; a way of centralizing resources; a way of snatching rivers away from the poor and giving them to the rich. And so in a sense they've become monuments to corruption. Arundhati Roy government dream letting-go I am an artist and a writer, and I do think that one always places oneself in the picture to see where one fits. Arundhati Roy fit artist thinking In a country like India, the British were only able to rule the country because it had completely co-opted the elite of the country, who did their work for them. Arundhati Roy india able country The genocide will not necessarily take the form of war, or death camps. Most likely it will take the form of ecocide, in which landscapes are devastated and the populations that live there slowly starve or turn upon each other savagely because there isn't enough food or water to go around. Arundhati Roy population water war Acceptance spells death to a writer. Arundhati Roy spells acceptance This is a diseased century. We diagnosed the disease and its causes with microscopic exactness, but whenever we applied the healing knife a new sore appeared. Our will was hard and pure, we should have been loved by the people, but they hate us. Why are we so odious and detested? We brought you truth and in our mouth it sounded like a lie. We brought you freedom, and it looks in our hands like a whip. We brought you the living life, and where our voice is heard the trees wither and there is a rustling of dry leaves. We brought you the promise of the future, but our tongue stammered and barked. Arundhati Roy live-life hate lying What sort of love is this love that we have for countries? What sort of country is it that will ever live up to our dreams? What sort of dreams were these that have been broken? Isn't the greatness of great nations directly proportionate to their ability to be ruthless, genocidal? Doesn't the height of a country's 'success' usually also mark the depths of its moral failure? Arundhati Roy greatness dream country
