Quotes (Tag: history)https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/output/atom/2019-09-29T18:47:59+02:00#3420Hannah Arendthttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/3420/2016-06-19T10:43:21+02:00<blockquote>[The method of infallible prediction] is foolproof only after the movements have seized power. Then all debate about the truth or falsity of a totalitarian dictator’s prediction is as weird as arguing with a potential murderer about whether his future victim is dead or alive – since by killing the person in question the murderer can promptly provide proof of the correctness of his statement. The only valid argument under such conditions is promptly to rescue the person whose death is predicted. Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it. The assertion that the Moscow subway is the only one in the world is a lie only so long as the Bolsheviks have not the power to destroy all the others. In other words, the method of infallible prediction, more than any other totalitarian propaganda device, betrays its ultimate goal of world conquest, since only in a world completely under his control could the totalitarian ruler possibly realize all his lies and make true all his prophecies.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/Hannah Arendt/">Hannah Arendt</a></div><div title=Source>"The Origins of Totalitarianism"</div></div></blockquote>#3387Hannah Arendthttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/3387/2016-06-18T06:47:42+02:00<blockquote>Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/Hannah Arendt/">Hannah Arendt</a></div><div title=Source>"The Origins of Totalitarianism"</div></div></blockquote>#3381Hannah Arendthttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/3381/2016-06-18T06:37:58+02:00<blockquote>Forgiveness is the only way to reverse the irreversible flow of history.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/Hannah Arendt/">Hannah Arendt</a></div></div></blockquote>#1792George Orwellhttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/1792/2013-06-20T01:56:17+02:00<blockquote>Every nationalist is haunted by the belief that the past can be altered. He spends part of his time in a fantasy world in which things happen as they should — in which, for example, the Spanish Armada was a success or the Russian Revolution was crushed in 1918 — and he will transfer fragments of this world to the history books whenever possible. Much of the propagandist writing of our time amounts to plain forgery. Material facts are suppressed, dates altered, quotations removed from their context and doctored so as to change their meaning. Events which it is felt ought not to have happened are left unmentioned and ultimately denied.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/George Orwell/">George Orwell</a></div><div title=Source>"Notes on Nationalism"</div></div></blockquote>#1428Frank Herberthttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/1428/2013-03-25T09:36:25+01:00<blockquote>The writing of history is largely a process of diversion. Most historical accounts distract attention from their secret influences behind great events. The few histories that escape this restrictive process vanish into obscurity through obvious processes. Destruction of as many copies as possible, burying the too revealing accounts in ridicule, ignoring them in the centers of education, insuring that they are not quoted elsewhere.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/Frank Herbert/">Frank Herbert</a></div></div></blockquote>#1324Noam Chomskyhttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/1324/2013-02-24T23:06:11+01:00<blockquote>Every powerful state relies on specialists whose task is to show that what the strong do is noble and just and, if the weak suffer, it is their fault.
In the West, these specialists are called "intellectuals" and, with marginal exceptions, they fulfill their task with skill and self-righteousness, however outlandish the claims, in this practice that traces back to the origins of recorded history.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/Noam Chomsky/">Noam Chomsky</a></div><div title=Source><a class="wrap" href="http://chomsky.info/articles/20091006.htm">"Barack Obama and the 'Unipolar Moment'" (October 6, 2009)</a></div></div></blockquote>#1307George Orwellhttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/1307/2013-02-24T22:13:07+01:00<blockquote>From the totalitarian point of view, history is something to be created rather than learned.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/George Orwell/">George Orwell</a></div><div title=Source>"The Prevention of Literature" (1946)</div></div></blockquote>#958Jesper Juulhttps://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/958/2012-12-19T21:36:38+01:00<blockquote>Learn from history, but screw history.<div class=source><div class=author title=Author><a href="https://littleliberry.org/autonomy/a/extra/quotes/tag/history/author/Jesper Juul/">Jesper Juul</a></div><div title=Source><a class="wrap" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwAuHhpbgfY&t=33m16s">http://www.youtube.com/wa ... ch?v=NwAuHhpbgfY&t=33m16s</a></div></div></blockquote>