Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated.
John Ralston SaulObviously we don't have 300 million people. We haven't got a big army. We don't have Hollywood. We're a medium small-sized country. We have to do what medium small-sized countries do, which-even though we're not smarter than other people-is to make ourselves seem to be smarter. We have to work harder and know more than other people.
John Ralston SaulIn a society of ideological believers, nothing is more ridiculous than the individual who doubts and does not conform.
John Ralston SaulThere is no need to search for global solutions, apart from an absolute necessity to destroy the idea that such things exist.
John Ralston SaulThe neo-conservatives, who are closely linked to the neo-corporatists, are rather different. They claim to be conservatives, when everything they stand for is a rejection of conservatism. They claim to present an alternate social model, when they are little more than the courtiers of the corporatist movement. Their agitation is filled with the bitterness and cynicism typical of courtiers who scramble for crumbs at the banquet tables of real power, but are always denied a proper chair.
John Ralston Saul