Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong. John Ralston Saul More Quotes by John Ralston Saul More Quotes From John Ralston Saul 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 victorygovernmentdresses 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 maintenanceofficeneeds Money is not real. John Ralston Saul consciousrealagreement Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created John Ralston Saul problemreasoninspirational As an inclusive quality, imagination is thus our primary force for progress, whatever progress is. John Ralston Saul progressqualityimagination 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-senseimaginationexpression Everyone has an equal right to inequality. John Ralston Saul inequalityequal 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 groupskingsexercise 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 civilizationyearsthinking Only when God was said to have died did various leaders, professions and sectors risk pushing themselves forward as successors. John Ralston Saul pushingriskleader 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 sillymencivilization 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 intellectuallyingideas It is undoubtedly easier to believe in absolutes, follow blindly, mouth received wisdom. But that is self-betrayal. John Ralston Saul betrayalselfbelieve 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 armyhard-workcountry United States:. A nation given either to unjustified over-enthusiasms or infantile furies. John Ralston Saul united-statesgivenenthusiasm 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 mothermenfather McDonald's is the ultimate symbol of passive conformity. John Ralston Saul passiveconformitymcdonalds 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 diseasedesirereality Faith: The opposite of dogmatism. John Ralston Saul dogmatismopposites Moral crusade: Public activity undertaken by middle-aged men who are cheating on their wives or diddling little boys. Moral crusades are particularly popular among those seeking power for their own personal pleasure, politicians who can't think of anything useful to do with their mandates, and religious professionals suffering from a personal inability to communicate with their god. John Ralston Saul religiousboyscheating
