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Character Wars: America's Failing Character QUOTES

Character Wars: America's Failing Character QUOTES

1 " We are life’s bystanders. We are the cheering crowds who greet the great generals enjoying their Roman Triumphs. Is that all you want your life to be? – the faceless guy in the crowd applauding the elite? Why don’t you get rid of these people and enjoy your own triumphs? "

― , Character Wars: America's Failing Character

2 " Every nation can be summed up by a single book or play, or by a particular author. America is perhaps perfectly encapsulated by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a book about luxury, enchantment, glamour, magic spells, aspiration, a vulgar Wonderland, insecurity, pretentiousness, bluffing, soullessness, fakes, phonies, emptiness, desperation, regrets, and impossible dreams. “Her voice is full of money,” says the narrator about the beguiling muse Daisy Buchanan. Could this not serve as the epitaph for the American Dream itself as it is finally laid to rest? "

― , Character Wars: America's Failing Character

3 " Why shouldn’t the State, the Commonwealth, be in charge of everything? Why should unelected, unaccountable private elites run the country? How can a nation be a democracy if it is controlled by private banks, private corporations, private markets, and the private super rich? What connection do any of these have to democracy and the power of the people? The ancient Athenians invented democracy precisely to stop rule by oligarchs. Now capitalism has subverted democracy and given the power straight back to the oligarchs. Democracy, thanks to capitalism, has become meaningless, a farce. "

― , Character Wars: America's Failing Character

4 " Why is dog ownership so widespread and popular? It’s because human betas are trying to get in on the alpha action. They can’t control human beings, so they have to settle for dominating dumb brutes further down the evolutionary scale – but, hey, you’ve got to go where you’ve got to go, right?! "

― , Character Wars: America's Failing Character