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Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America QUOTES

Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America QUOTES

1 " As Joseph Schumpeter remarked, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool enough of the people for long enough to do irreversible damage. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

2 " In contrast to status quo conservatism, authoritarianism is primarily driven not by aversion to change (difference over time) but by aversion to complexity (difference across space). In a nutshell, authoritarians are “simple-minded avoiders of complexity more than closed-minded avoiders of change” (Stenner 2009b: 193). "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

3 " it can be masked with a veneer of legality, it can be cloaked with plausible deniability. It is always possible to justify each incremental step. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

4 " This conception of representation appears throughout The Federalist Papers. No. 57 urges that: “The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

5 " Worst of all, we might miss the real opportunities for a thoughtful, other-regarding reconciliation of two critical parts of our human nature: the desire to liberate and enable the individual, and the impetus to protect and serve the collective. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

6 " If public opinion cannot express itself through political associations, newspapers, and electoral politics, it will be channeled into mob violence "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

7 " In the long term, Trump, if successful, may be able to replace disloyal appointees with loyal appointees, and may be able to attract loyalists to civil service positions. In the short term, he can threaten to undermine agencies that fail to do his bidding or in any other way pose a threat to his power. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

8 " in the event of an “authoritarian revolution,” authoritarians may seek massive social change in pursuit of greater oneness and sameness, willingly overturning established institutions and practices that their (psychologically) conservative peers would be drawn to defend and preserve. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

9 " As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America

10 " too much dystopianism, too frequently or easily deployed, has its own costs. It’s important to distinguish policies we don’t like from policies that attempt a fundamental transformation of political institutions. That’s true for purposes of conserving critical resources. But it’s also true for purposes of drawing public attention and debate. "

― Cass R. Sunstein , Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America