“In a democracy the people choose a leader in whom they trust. Then the chosen leader says, Now shut up and obey me. People and party are then no longer free to interfere in his business.”
“De som har makt over ordene bør være edru blant de rasende.”
“I sat at a lunch table with a professor of premonotheistic spirituality, plus several women from some of the tribes in this state that has more Native Americans than any other. All agreed that the paradigm of human organization had been the circle, not the pyramid or hierarchy—and it could be again. I’d never known there was a paradigm that linked instead of ranked. It was as if I’d been assuming opposition—and suddenly found myself in a welcoming world; like putting one’s foot down for a steep stair and discovering level ground. Still, when a Laguna law student from New Mexico complained that her courses didn’t cite the Iroquois Confederacy as the model for the U.S. Constitution—or explain that this still existing Confederacy was the oldest continuing democracy in the world—I thought she was being romantic. But I read about the Constitutional Convention and discovered that Benjamin Franklin had indeed cited the Iroquois Confederacy as a model. He was well aware of its success in unifying vast areas of the United States and Canada by bringing together Native nations for mutual decisions but also allowing autonomy in local ones. He hoped the Constitution could do the same for the thirteen states. That’s why he invited two Iroquois men to Philadelphia as advisers. Among their first questions was said to be: Where are the women?”
“All Socialism is Democratic Socialism. Socialist nations take away civil liberties by referendum.”
“In fact, caucus, a word derived from the Algonquin languages, better reflected the layers of talking circles and the goal of consensus that were at the heart of governance.”
“LENIN = Revolutionary Social Democracy American Socialists = Democratic Socialism . What is the difference? The USSR held democratic referendums too; all of which increased the power of the central planners and reduced the individual to nothingness.”