Michael Parenti Quotes - Page 3

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• People may like what third-party candidates say, because often they are the only ones saying anything, but they usually won't vote for someone who doesn't have a chance. Since third-party candidates are not in the news, they are considered to be not really in the race; and since they are not in the race, this justifies treating them as if they are not news.

  Michael Parenti

  Party, Race, People

  8 Copy quote

• A huge national security state has developed in the United States since World War II. Its function is to buttress anticommunist, procapitalist governments and undermine and destroy popular movements whenever possible.

  Michael Parenti

  War, Government, United States

  11 Copy quote

• I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own.... And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans.

  Michael Parenti

  Believe, Dirty, America

  23 Copy quote

• Far from being reluctantly propelled into hostilities by popular war fever, leaders incite that fever in order to gather support for their war policies. Thereby do they attempt to distract the public from pressing domestic matters, serve the overseas interests of U.S. investors, justify gargantuan military budgets, and present themselves as great leaders.

  Michael Parenti

  Military, War, Order

  12 Copy quote

• The first atrocity, the first war crime committed in any war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth.

  Michael Parenti

  War, Atrocities, Firsts

  14 Copy quote

• It is ironic that people of modest means sometimes become conservative out of a scarcity fear bred by the very capitalist system they support.

  Michael Parenti

  Mean, People, Political

  "Democracy for the Few". Book by Michael Parenti, 1974.

  17 Copy quote

• My point is that it's incorrect to say that the Iraq policy isn't working. It is working. It is doing what they want. They have got control of the oil and they are exporting it, and they have stripped a government that was 90% state owned and they are privatizing it. ... They have taken a country that was self defining and self developing and is now an impoverished prostrate devastated country where people will line up to work for slave wages or become members of the police or army because it's the only job they can get and serve as adjuncts to U.S. imperialism.

  Michael Parenti

  Country, Jobs, Taken

  16 Copy quote

• Conservatives insist that government should be "run more like a business." One might wonder how that could be possible, since government does not market goods and services for the purpose of capital accumulation.

  Michael Parenti

  Running, Government, Political

  "Democracy for the Few". Book by Michael Parenti, 1974.

  8 Copy quote

• The crucial role communists played in organizing industrial unions in the 1930s and struggling for social reforms, peace, and civil rights strengthened rather then undermined democratic forces.

  Michael Parenti

  Struggle, Rights, Political

  "Democracy for the Few". Book by Michael Parenti, 1974.

  15 Copy quote

• If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, not democracy... But the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country.

  Michael Parenti

  Country, Fall, Government

  12 Copy quote

• For the last fifty years we've been supporting right-wing governments, and that is a puzzlement to me...I don't understand what there is in the American character...that almost automatically, even when we have a liberal President, we support fascist dictatorships or are tolerant towards them.

  Michael Parenti

  Character, Government, Years

  6 Copy quote

• Just as the power of the feudal aristocracy had to be broken in order for capitalism to emerge fully, so must imperialism and capitalism in Third World nations be overcome if a new system is to prevail.

  Michael Parenti

  Order, Broken, Overcoming

  10 Copy quote

• Union busting has become a major industry with more than a thousand consulting firms teaching companies how to prevent workers from organizing and how to get rid of existing unions.

  Michael Parenti

  Teaching, Political, Unions

  Michael Parenti (1996). “Dirty Truths”, p.122, City Lights Books

  8 Copy quote

• All economic and political institutions are contrivances that should serve the interests of the people. When they fail to do so, they should be replaced by something more responsive, more just, and more democratic. Marx said this, and so did Jefferson. It is a revolutionary doctrine, and very much an American one.

  Michael Parenti

  People, Political, Doctrine

  Michael Parenti (2010). “Democracy for the Few”, p.286, Cengage Learning

  9 Copy quote

• Generosity toward the lower classes historically has never been an important part of upper-class awareness.

  Michael Parenti

  Class, Generosity, Important

  12 Copy quote

• Even though the crime rate has dropped in recent years, the United States has more police per capita then any other nation in the world.

  Michael Parenti

  Years, Political, Police

  "Democracy for the Few". Book by Michael Parenti, 1974.

  11 Copy quote

• Archbishop Romero of El Salvador was a member of the Salvadoran aristocracy. He could not have risen to the top of the church hierarchy otherwise. But after he began voicing critical remarks about the war and concerned comments about the poor, he was assassinated.

  Michael Parenti

  War, Political, Church

  Michael Parenti (1996). “Dirty Truths”, p.189, City Lights Books

  12 Copy quote

• The nation, like the church, has its visible symbols and insignia, its parchments engrossed with the revealed word, its dogmas, hymns, liturgy, holy day celebrations, its early Fathers, prophets and martyrs, its priesthood and its lay sodality, its myths of sacred genesis and apocalyptic crises, its world-saving mission and its missionaries.

  Michael Parenti

  Father, Hymns, Holy Days

  Michael Parenti (1970). “The Anti-communist Impulse”

  9 Copy quote

• The peculiar danger of executive power is that it executes.

  Michael Parenti

  Political, Peculiar, Executive Power

  Michael Parenti (2010). “Democracy for the Few”, p.227, Cengage Learning

  13 Copy quote

• To make the world safe for those who own it, politically active elements of the owning class have created a national security state that expends billions of dollars and enlists the efforts of vast numbers of people.

  Michael Parenti

  Class, Numbers, People

  Michael Parenti (1996). “Dirty Truths”, p.174, City Lights Books

  10 Copy quote

• The US government is usually on the wrong side against the poor and downtrodden, because the wrong side is the right side, given the class interests upon which the [US] policy is fixed.

  Michael Parenti

  Government, Class, Sides

  8 Copy quote

• The American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country.

  Michael Parenti

  Country, Government, Political

  Michael Parenti (2004). “Superpatriotism”, p.17, City Lights Books

  8 Copy quote

• The trick is to steal big.

  Michael Parenti

  Political, Stealing, Bigs

  "Democracy for the Few". Book by Michael Parenti, 1974.

  6 Copy quote

• Russia became a juicy chunk of the Third World, with immense reserves of cheap labor, a vast treasure of natural resources, and industrial assets to be sold off at giveaway prices.

  Michael Parenti

  Russia, Political, Treasure

  Michael Parenti (1996). “Dirty Truths”, p.140, City Lights Books

  4 Copy quote

• The god who presides over the Judeo-Christian belief system bears a disquieting resemblance to those imperfect creations known as human beings. This suggests that either he really did fashion us in his own image or we fashioned him in ours.

  Michael Parenti

  Christian, Fashion, Political

  Michael Parenti (2010). “God and His Demons”

  4 Copy quote

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