"First we kill all the subversives;

then, their collaborators;
later, those who sympathize with them;
afterward, those who remain indifferent;
and finally, the undecided."
- General Iberico Saint Jean

A more accurate term for a system

that erases the boundaries

between Big Government and Big Business

is not liberal,

conservative or capitalist

but corporatist.

Its main characteristics

are huge transfers

of public wealth to private hands,

often accompanied by exploding debt,

an ever-widening chasm between

the dazzling rich

and the disposable poor

and an aggressive nationalism

that justifies

bottomless spending on security.

For those inside the bubble

of extreme wealth

created by such an arrangement,

there can be no more profitable way

to organize a society.

But because of the obvious drawbacks

for the vast majority of the population

left outside the bubble,

other features of the corporatist state

tend to include aggressive surveillance

(once again, with government

and large corporations

trading favors and contracts),

mass incarceration,

shrinking civil liberties and often,

though not always,

torture.

 - Naomi Klein

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

(art by Beau Stanton)

"I think human consciousness

was a tragic misstep

in evolution.

We became too self-aware.

Nature created

an aspect of nature

separate from itself.

We are creatures that should

not exist by natural law.

We are things that labor

under the illusion

of having a self,

this accretion of sensory

experience and feeling,

programmed with total assurance

that we are each somebody

when, in fact,

everybody's nobody.

I think the honorable

thing for species to do

is deny our programming,

stop reproducing,

walk hand in hand

into extinction,

one last midnight,

brothers and sisters

opting out of a raw deal."

(True Detective S01 E01)

(art by PAOLO URGILÉS)

"That men do not learn very much

from the lessons of history

is the most important

of all the lessons of history."

 - Aldous Huxley

(The Art of Dan Verkys)

)

"The Government, that is,

the aristocracy of lawyers and bankers

who represent the country to-day,

just as the priests used to do

in the time of the monarchy,

has felt the necessity

of mystifying the worthy people

with a few new wordsand old ideas,

like philosophers of every school,

and all strong intellects

ever since time began."

(Honoré de Balzac - The Wild Ass's Skin (1831))

 

)

)

“You educate a man;

you educate a man.

You educate a woman;

you educate a generation.”

― Brigham Young

Now the earth

was corrupt in God’s sight

and was full of violence. 

God saw how corrupt

the earth had become,

for all the people on earth

had corrupted their ways.

So God said to Noah,

“I am going to put an end

to all people,

for the earth is filled with violence

because of them.

I am surely going to destroy

both them and the earth.

(Genesis 6:11-13)

(© Wolfgang Grasse)