Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Last words on tyranny


Man of a Thousand Disguises, otherwise known affectionately as “Uncle Ho” to his followers. Ho had presided over summary executions and purges of political opponents and former party colleagues deemed a threat to his leadership. One biographer noted how a comrade of Ho would meet with him in a cordial atmosphere one day only to be executed the following day on Ho’s order. The myth and mystique of Ho, however, remain largely unsoiled in Vietnam as any criticism of his leadership or past deeds would be equated with an act of national treason or with being an enemy of the state and the Communist Party of Vietnam, a charge that has normally landed critics and dissidents in prisons and education camps throughout Vietnam - School of Vice


Image: google
“The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.”
        -Clarence Darrow
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“Under conditions of tyranny, it is far easier to act than to think.”
        -Hannah Arendt
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“Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom--for himself.”
        -Elbert Hubbard 
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A mother tends to her child amid another round of violent forced evictions in Cambodia [image google]
“Hateful is the power, and pitiable is the life, of those who wish to be feared rather than loved.”

        -Cornelius Nepos
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“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”
        -Thomas Paine
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“Tyrants are seldom free; the cares and the instruments of their tyranny enslave them.”
        -George Santayana
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“The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

        -Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

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