Quotes About Control

Washington likes to threaten the people over whom they exercise power.

Ante el descontento social, las autoridad suelen tener dos opciones: apaciguar a la población con concesiones simbólicas o reforzar el control para reducir al mínimo el daño que eso pueda causar a sus intereses. Al parecer, las élites occidentales consideran que la segunda opción —fortalecer su poder— es el mejor procedimiento, acaso el único viable, para proteger su posición.

the powerful and the powerless.

British philosopher Jeremy Bentham's eighteenth-century conception of the Panopticon, a building design he believed would allow institutions to effectively control human behavior.

mass surveillance kills dissent in a deeper and more important place as well: in the mind, where the individual trains him- or herself to think only in line with what is expected and demanded.

threat or actuality of government surveillance may psychologically inhibit freedom of speech.

what goals drive all institutions of authority. "Doing something wrong," in the eyes of such institutions, encompasses far more than illegal acts, violent behavior, and terrorist plots. It typically extends to meaningful dissent and any genuine challenge. It is the nature of authority to equate dissent with wrongdoing, or at least with a threat.

Let us speak no more of faith in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of cryptography.

Technology has now enabled a type of ubiquitous surveillance that had previously been the province of only the most imaginative science fiction writers.

assurances that surveillance is only targeted at those who "have done something wrong" should provide little comfort, since a state will reflexively view any challenge to its power as wrongdoing. *

This is a deal that invites passivity, obedience, and conformity. The safest course, the way to ensure being "left alone," is to remain quiet, unthreatening, and compliant.

Mass surveillance by the state is therefore inherently repressive, even in the unlikely case that it is not abused by vindictive officials to do things like gain private information about political opponents. Regardless of how surveillance is used or abused, the limits it imposes on freedom are intrinsic to its existence.

History shows that the mere existence of a mass surveillance apparatus, regardless of how it is used, is in itself sufficient to stifle dissent.

Radical expansions of power are often introduced in this way, by persuading people that they affect just a specific, discrete group.

I think Dianne Feinstein may be the most Orwellian political official in Washington.

Aircraft don't typically fall out of the sky.

person who needs to control his life will eventually lose control of it. But those who can give up control of their lives, allowing me to guide and direct them, will enjoy the fullest life possible.

We make our own plans and expect God to back them.

Actually, offense is a sign of fear. If you're offended, it's because you're afraid that person can harm you in some way.

My mom was definitely very strict with me.

The authority of any governing institution must stop at its citizen's skin.

Power can be taken but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself.

Patriarchy in all its forms is still about controlling reproduction, and thus the bodies of women, which is why invading a female body is still less likely to be punished by law than invading private property.

began to see that for some, religion was just a form of politics you couldn't criticize.