“In the US, there is basically one party – the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies.”

For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us.

The U.S. – the idea that the U.S. has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that’s hardly even a joke.

Unlike Europe, China can’t be intimidated. Europe backs down if the United States looks at it the wrong way.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

Civil disobedience is – it’s no fun.

Nineteen sixty-eight was one exciting moment in a much larger movement. It spawned a whole range of movements.

The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.

Up until the First World War, when people turned anti-German, Germany had been described by American political scientists as the model of democracy.

Stability is when the U.K. and U.S. invade a country and impose the regime of their choice.

I stated that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are ‘among the most unspeakable crimes in history.

That’s why you have state secret laws. Citizens are not supposed to know what their government is doing to them.

By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population.

The drones are a terrorist weapon; they not only kill targets but also terrorise other people.

So slavery, for example, or other forms of tyranny, are inherently monstrous. The individuals participating in them may be the nicest guys you can imagine.

I’m rather secular. I’m basically Jewish. But I think I’m Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all.

The Arctic is an ocean. The southern pole is a continent surrounded by ocean. The North Pole is an ocean, or northern waters. It’s an ocean surrounded by land, basically.

Basically, I wear sandals, like Jesus. When it gets cold in Chicago, the snow way up to my knees, I still wear my sandals. But that’s me.

See, behind all my tough, rough exterior is basically a marshmallow, maybe a pussycat. But not a wimp!

I fear – as far as I can tell – that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training.

I fear – as far as I can tell – that most undergraduate degrees in computer science these days are basically Java vocational training.

It’s basically the same, just darker.

School is basically about one point of view – the one the teacher has or the textbooks have.