Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals the fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such as world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners.
Howard ZinnThere is civil disobedience against the military machine, protest against police brutality directed especially at people of color.
Howard ZinnI was a bombadier in WW 2. When you are up 30,000 feet you do not hear the screams or smell the blood or see those without limbs or eyes. It was not til I read Hersey's Hiroshima that I realized what bomber pilots do.
Howard ZinnThe cry of the poor is is not always just, but if you don't listen to it, you will never know what justice is.
Howard ZinnWhat matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but "who is sitting in" - and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.
Howard ZinnHistorically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery - have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.
Howard ZinnTranscendentalism is, we might say, an early form of anarchism. The Transcendentalists also did not call themselves anarchists, but there are anarchist ideas in their thinking and in their literature. They were all suspicious of authority. We might say that the Transcendentalism played a role in creating an atmosphere of skepticism towards authority, towards government.
Howard Zinn