"McLuhanisms" I don't necessarily agree with everything I say. There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village. The medium is the message. We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us. Affluence creates poverty. Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior. Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness. It is the weak and confused who worship the pseudosimplicities of brutal directness. The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology. Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message. The message of any medium or technology is the change of scale. The media have substituted themselves for the older world. Even if we should wish to recover that older world we can do it only by an intensive study of the ways in which the media have swallowed it. Every society honors its live conformists, and its dead troublemakers. Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America - not on the battlefields of Vietnam. A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't believed it. Environments are not just containers, but are processes that change the content totally.

Education Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. William Butler Yeats Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. Will Durant It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. Alec Bourne It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. Mark Twain Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him. Teach a man to fish, and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. Karl Marx If you give a person a fish, they'll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they'll fish for a lifetime. Dan Quayle Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. Will Durant Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. Daniel J. Boorstin The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. Herbert Spencer The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. Karl Marx What we don't know can't hurt us. But if we are, on the whole, ignorant of the realities of the world, we know on another level that there is suffering out there. We know there is poverty. We know there is exploitation. We know. We cannot hide behind our ignorance. Peter K. Fallon Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change. Ramsay Clark Things do not change; we change. Henry David Thoreau What luck for rulers, that men do not think. Adolf Hitler What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is. Dan Quayle Only the educated are free. Epictetus

Social Justice/Action Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. Gandhi I carry from my mother's womb a fanatic's heart. William Butler Yeats I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. Galileo Galilei I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. Ludwig Wittgenstein The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. Franklin D. Roosevelt Radical changes in world politics leave America with a heightened responsibility to be, for the world, an example of a genuinely free, democratic, just and humane society. Pope John Paul II There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. Gandhi If we really learn about the rest of the world—particularly the developing world, really pay attention to it, really understand its needs and aspirations, we can begin to communicate with something like love. We can lift up poorer people and nations, and make a safer world. For where there is real communication—where there is love—there can be no terror. Peter K. Fallon Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It's the other way around. They never vote for us. Dan Quayle The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others. Theodore Roosevelt Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty. Gandhi Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King Jr. I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. Abraham Lincoln Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness. Gandhi Democracy and violence can ill go together. Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side. Gandhi In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith. James William Fulbright It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. Franklin D. Roosevelt To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing. Theodore Roosevelt It might be a disturbing thesis to Americans in a post-communist world, a world of triumphant capitalism, but it is possible that the only solution to economic inequality, environmental damage and political conflict is the active management of national economies and the modest redistribution of income. I'm not sure we're ready to accept the "reality" of that idea as a nation. But I do think it's time we stopped pretending to be ignorant of it. Peter K. Fallon The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century. Dan Quayle Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom. Bobby Sands, M.P. (1954-1981) First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Gandhi

Peace and Threats to Peace If God lived on earth, people would break his windows. Jewish Proverb A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. Hatred ever kills, love never dies; such is the vast difference between the two. What is obtained by love is retained for all time. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality for it increases hatred. Gandhi What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? Gandhi Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. Hermann Goering I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. Dwight D. Eisenhower If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. Moshe Dayan Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people. Jawaharlal Nehru The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction. Jawaharlal Nehru I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. Daniel J. Boorstin Man's nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature. Gandhi

Politics I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. Gandhi A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. Franklin D. Roosevelt A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead. Leo Rosten From Watergate we learned what generations before us have known; our Constitution works. And during Watergate years it was interpreted again so as to reaffirm that no one - absolutely no one - is above the law. Leon Jaworski Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives. John Stuart Mill In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. H. L. Mencken The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. P. J. O'Rourke Liberalism is, I think, resurgent. One reason is that more and more people are so painfully aware of the alternative. John Kenneth Galbraith In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport. Dick Gregory Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child. Dan Quayle Republicans are the best evidence we have to support the contention that evolution is merely a theory. Peter K. Fallon When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it. Clarence Darrow Beguiled by George S. Bush's easy smile and casual indifference to the details, we are on the brink of electing him to office. This isn't choosing a president, it's casting the lead in a sitcom about the presidency. Roger Ebert Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future. Jimmy Carter A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future. Leonard Bernstein Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything. Joseph Stalin Fascism should more properly be called corporatism , since it is the merger of state and corporate power. Benito Mussolini If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator. George W Bush (12/18/00) The Clinton/Lewinsky affair was a classic example of the banality of evil. George W. Bush's presidency is a classic example of the evil of banality. Peter K. Fallon What you guys want, I'm for. Dan Quayle

Our Mass-mediated Culture Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth. Franklin D. Roosevelt The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. Flannery O'Connor Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half. Gore Vidal Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin I suggest that our eyes and ears are closed, and deliberately so, consciously so. I suggest that for all the millions and billions of dollars spent every year on expanding the communication potential of the human species, for all of the hundreds of channels of broadcast and cable programming, for the hundreds of thousands of radio outlets worldwide, for the amazing rise of cellular technology, for all that it appears that human beings are more closely linked to each other and to the world than ever before, we in fact learn and know very little of the world, and have used our communication technologies—deliberately—to cut ourselves off from it. Peter K. Fallon I don't want to ever, ever do something in life that isn't fun. Ever. Jennifer Love Hewitt Television and radio do a wonderful job in focusing attention on the problems of our society. Richard J. Daley Television is a high-impact medium. It does some things no other force can do-transmitting electronic pictures through the air. Still, as an explored, comprehensive medium, it is not a substitute for print. Walter Cronkite Television is democracy at its ugliest. Paddy Chayevsky Men have become the tools of their tools. Henry David Thoreau The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. Adlai E. Stevenson The flood of money that gushes into politics today is a pollution of democracy. Theodore H. White Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn. I'm my own handler. Any questions? Ask me... There's not going to be any more handler stories because I'm the handler... I'm Doctor Spin. Dan Quayle People in the media say they must look at the president with a microscope. Now, I don't mind a microscope, but boy, when they use a proctoscope, that's going too far. Richard M. Nixon The media I've had a lot to do with is lazy. We fed them and they ate it every day. Michael Deaver As the mainstream media has become increasingly dependent on advertising revenues for support, it has become an anti-democratic force in society. Robert McChesney Far from being a window on the world, Television seems to be becoming—in American culture at least—a mirror. The narcissistic power of material consumption seems to accompany an urge to attend more closely to ourselves than to the outside world. Peter K. Fallon The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent. Gore Vidal Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media. Noam Chomsky Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome. T. S. Eliot The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. Ray Bradbury Television is a weapon of mass distraction. Larry Gelbart