In most of history, societies have not been free. It's a very rare society that is free. The default condition of human societies is tyranny.
quote by Michael Novak
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Monopoly controls have been the exception in free societies; they have been the rule in closed societies.
quote by Lawrence Lessig
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Free societies are societies in which the right of dissent is protected.
quote by Natan Sharansky
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In general, human societies are not innovative. They are hierarchical and ritualistic. Suggestions for change are greeted with suspicion; they imply an unpleasant future variation in ritual and hierarchy; an exchange of one set of rituals for another, or perhaps for a less structured society with fewer rituals. And yet there are times when societies must change.
Carl Sagan in Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Think how different human societies would be if they were based on love rather than justice. But no such societies have ever existed on earth.
quote by Mortimer Adler
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When we are unwilling to draw clear moral lines between free societies and fear societies, when we are unwilling to call the former good and the latter evil, we will not be able to advance the cause of peace because peace cannot be disconnected from freedom.
quote by Natan Sharansky
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The rate of human invention is faster, and the rate of cultural loss is slower, in areas occupied by many competing societies with many individuals and in contact with societies elsewhere.
quote by Jared Diamond
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A university is not a service station. Neither is it a political society, nor a meeting place for political societies. With all its limitations and failures, and they are invariably many, it is the best and most benign side of our society insofar as that society aims to cherish the human mind.
quote by Richard Hofstadter
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In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.
quote by Natan Sharansky
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The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.
quote by Jean Cocteau
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The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head.
quote by Jean Cocteau
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A social problem is one that concerns the way in which people live together in one society. A racial problem is a problem which confronts two different races who live in two separate societies, even if those societies are side by side.
quote by Pauline Hanson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Neither you nor I
Cows breed more, deer breed more and hares breed more;
They must breed more for forests want them more.
They must feed lions, tigers and foxes
With their casualties in multitudes.
The poor breed more and the lowly breed more;
They must breed more for societies want them more
They must serve the rich, masters and leaders
With their casualties in multitudes.
Between the forests and the societies,
The difference is: forests gave no saints
Whereas the societies gave saints in chain.
No change in societies as in forests..
Who is the planer? Who can defeat him?
Who is the keeper? Who can control him?
Who is the owner? Who can approach him?
Neither you nor I can reform the world.
15.07.2008
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head.
Jean Cocteau in Journey to Freedom (1969)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.
quote by John F. Kennedy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There's a long record here of being wrong. There's a good reason for it. There are probably multiple reasons. Certainly proliferation is a hard thing to track, particularly in countries that deny easy and free access and don't have free and open societies.
Of course, there can be serious injustices within free societies.
quote by Natan Sharansky
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Democratic societies can no longer give religious fanatics a free hand to abuse and murder non believers. Such action betrays contempt for the basic human rights which animate any democracy with meaning.
quote by Armstrong Williams
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I believe that free and civilized societies do not hold prisoners incommunicado.
quote by Tom McClintock
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Free and civilized societies do not hold prisoners incommunicado.
quote by Tom McClintock
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Yes, I have cherished my "demagogue" role. I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having bought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is maligant in the body of America - then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.
Malcolm X in The Autobiograghy of Malcom X (1964)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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