Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Democracy is the wholesome and pure air without which a socialist public organization cannot live a full-blooded life.
Interpretation
Democracy is essential for the vitality of a socialist society.
In this quote, Mikhail Gorbachev emphasizes the importance of democracy as a fundamental component of a thriving socialist public organization. He argues that without the freedom and openness provided by democratic principles, a socialist system cannot function effectively or support the welfare of its citizens.
In practice
This is a great quote to use in a discussion about the importance of democratic values in today's political climate.
Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.
The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy.
To me, nature is sacred. Trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.
New approaches are needed, new orientations in both thought and action. We must make the transition to a new civilization...We are talking of a transition toward a new civilization. No one knows what it will be like. What is important is to orient in that direction... I am convinced that a new civilization will inevitably take on certain features that are characteristic of, or inherent in, the socialist ideal.
According to Lenin, socialism and democracy are indivisible.... The essence of perestroika lies in the fact that it unites socialism with democracy and revives the Leninist concept of socialist construction both in theory and in practice. We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy.
Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. They are the birthright of every American.
If a British government experienced such a long and persistent resistance to domestic policy in England, then that policy would almost certainly be changed... We have asserted that we are political prisoners, and everything about out country - our arrests, interrogations, trials, and prison conditions - show that we are politically motivated.
Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much.
The task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people.
I suspect there have been a number of conspiracies that never were described or leaked out. But I suspect none of the magnitude and sweep of Watergate.
If you don't have 30 years to devote to social policy, don't get involved.
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