In general, democracy and individualism have advanced in spite of and often against specific economic interest. Both democracy and individualism have been based upon financial sacrifice, not gain. Even in Athens, a large part of the 7,000 citizens who participated regularly in assemblies were farmers who had to give up several days' work to go into town to talk and listen.

Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated.

We all need a bit of self-delusion. It gets us over the difficult spots.

Wordsmiths who serve established power...castrate the public imagination by subjecting language to a complexity which renders it private. Elitism is always their aim.

People cannot do what they cannot think, and they cannot think what they cannot say.

Dictionary: Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order.

The Age of Reason has turned out to be the Age of Structure; a time when, in the absence of purpose, the drive for power as a value in itself has become the principal indicator of social approval. And the winning of power has become the measure of social merit.