Howard Zinn Quotes - Page 6

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• Imperialism is the factor in American policy, not just since 1898, but in fact long before it when we were expanding across this continent and taking away Indian lands in order to enlarge the territory of the United States. We have been an imperial power and an expansionist power for a very long time.

  Howard Zinn

  Order, Land, Long

  Source: bad.eserver.org

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• I would prefer to use a very inclusive definition of the working class. I'd like to include all of those people who are, if they're not exploited by an immediate employer over them, they're exploited by the system and therefore have a cause to want to change the system. Having a very inclusive definition of the working class creates a great opportunity for organizing people.

  Howard Zinn

  Opportunity, Class, People

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• The function of traditional history is to create a citizenry that looks to the top - the president, Congress, the Supreme Court - to make the important decisions. That's what traditional history is all about: the laws that were passed, the decisions made by the court. So much of history is built around "the great men." All of that is very anti-democratic.

  Howard Zinn

  Men, Law, Decision

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• And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners.

  Howard Zinn

  Jobs, Thinking, People

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.10, Routledge

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• If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism?

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Patriotism, Form

  "Dissent In Pursuit Of Equality, Life, Liberty And Happiness: An Interview With Historian Howard Zinn" by Sharon Basco, July 03, 2002.

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• Not only did waging war against Hitler fail to save the Jews, it may be that the war itself brought on the Final Solution of genocide. This is not to remove the responsibility from Hitler and the Nazis, but there is much evidence that Germany's anti-Semitic actions, cruel as they were, would not have turned to mass murder were it not for the psychic distortions of war, acting on already distorted minds. Hitler's early aim was forced emigration, not extermination, but the frenzy of it created an atmosphere in which the policy turned to genocide.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Responsibility, Psychics

  Howard Zinn (2011). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.248, Seven Stories Press

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• I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare.

  Howard Zinn

  Past, Compassion, Supposing That

  Howard Zinn (2013). “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress”, p.12, City Lights Books

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• I am not an absolute pacifist, because I can't rule out the possibility that under some, carefully defined circumstances, some degree of violence may be justified, if it is focused directly at a great evil.

  Howard Zinn

  Evil, Violence, Degrees

  ZNet forum reply, May 26, 1999.

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• Politics is pointless if it does nothing to enhance the beauty of our lives.

  Howard Zinn

  Doe, Ifs, Our Lives

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.201, Beacon Press

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• They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy. They were the women of early America.

  Howard Zinn

  America, Political, Independence

  Howard Zinn (2014). “A People's History of the United States”, p.91, Pan Macmillan

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• Democracy depends on people speaking out, and in times of great crisis, on people creating a commotion.

  Howard Zinn

  Creating, People, Democracy

  Source: openvault.wgbh.org

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• People of the United States have to really consider whether they want to be an empire. Sweden is not worried about terrorism. New Zealand is not worried about terrorism. Holland is not worried about terrorism. Why not be a modest little country without all of these enormous ambitions?

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Ambition, People

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• Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.

  Howard Zinn

  Thinking, Race, Objectivity

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• Surely, if it is the right of the people to "alter or abolish," it is their right to criticize, even severely, policies they believe destructive of the ends for which government has been established. This principle, in the Declaration of Independence, suggests that true patriotism lies in supporting the values the country is supposed to cherish: equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. When our government compromises, undermines, or attacks those values, it is being unpatriotic.

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Lying, Believe

  Howard Zinn (2013). “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress”, p.112, City Lights Books

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• David Ray Griffin has done admirable and painstaking research in reviewing the mysteries surrounding the 9/11 attacks. It is the most persuasive argument I have seen for further investigation [into] that historic and troubling event.

  Howard Zinn

  Rays, Events, Done

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• I start from the supposition that the world is topsyturvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down.

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Thinking, Jail

  Howard Zinn (1997). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.404, Seven Stories Press

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• The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

  Howard Zinn

  Hope, Future, Thinking

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.208, Beacon Press

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• What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

  Howard Zinn

  Future, People, Giving

  Howard Zinn (2006). “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress”, p.270, City Lights Publishers

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• There was something horrifying in the realization that, in this twenty-first century of what we call 'civilization,' we have carved up what we claim is one world into 200 artificially created entities we call 'nations' and armed to apprehend or kill anyone who crosses a boundary.

  Howard Zinn

  Civilization, Realization, World

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• These people—the employed, the somewhat privileged—are drawn into alliance with the elite. They become the guards of the system, buffers between the upper and lower classes. If they stop obeying, the system falls.

  Howard Zinn

  Fall, Class, People

  Howard Zinn (2014). “A People's History of the United States”, p.563, Pan Macmillan

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• If you have an economic system in which there must be a lower class, there must be unemployed. There must be a large pool of people working at the worst jobs and the lowest paid jobs. Once you have a system like that, then the most likely people to be victims of that are people of color.

  Howard Zinn

  Jobs, Color, Class

  "Interview with Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States". Interview with Sean Carswell and Todd Taylor, razorcake.org. October 18, 2001.

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• In between war and passivity, there are a thousand possibilities.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Possibility, Thousand

  Howard Zinn (2012). “The Historic Unfulfilled Promise”, p.228, City Lights Publishers

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• Every word you utter to another human being has an effect, but you don't know it. If people begin to understand that change comes about as a result of a million tiny acts that seem totally insignificant, well then, they wouldn't hesitate to take those tiny acts.

  Howard Zinn

  People, Tiny, Results

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• If you work through the existing structures you are going to be corrupted. By working through political system that poisons the atmosphere, even the progressive organizations, you can see it even nowadays in the US, where people on the "Left" are all caught in the electoral campaign and get into fierce arguments about should we support this third party candidate or that third party candidate. This is a sort of little piece of evidence that suggests that when you get into working through electoral politics you begin to corrupt your ideals.

  Howard Zinn

  Party, Organization, People

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

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• Why do we have to be a military superpower? Why can't we be a humanitarian superpower?

  Howard Zinn

  Military, Humanitarian, Superpower

  Howard Zinn (2012). “Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches, 1963-2009”, p.238, Haymarket Books

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