There should be at least one leak like the Pentagon Papers every year.
Daniel EllsbergRead
The effect of that is to poison the flow of information to the President himself and to create a situation where a President can be almost, to use a metaphor, psychotically divorced from the realities in which he is acting.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the dangers of misinformation in shaping a leader's understanding of reality.
Daniel Ellsberg points out the critical impact of distorted information on a President's decision-making process. When the flow of accurate information is hindered, it can lead to a disconnect between the leader's perceptions and the actual circumstances surrounding their actions, resulting in misguided policies and decisions.
Themes
MisinformationLeadershipRealityDecision-MakingInformation Flow
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing the importance of transparency in governance, one might quote this to emphasize the danger of misinformation.
More from Daniel Ellsberg
All quotes →I felt that as an American citizen, as a responsible citizen, I could no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the American public. I did this clearly at my own jeopardy and I am prepared to answer to all the consequences of this decision.
Daniel EllsbergRead
I see Edward Snowden as someone who has chosen, at best, exile from the country he loves-with a serious risk of his assassination by agents of his government or life in prison (in solitary confinement)-to awaken us to the danger of our loss of democracy to a total-surveilla nce state
Daniel EllsbergRead
EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time.
Daniel EllsbergRead
If there's another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country.
Daniel EllsbergRead
We were young, we were foolish, we were arrogant, but we were right.
Daniel EllsbergRead
Similar quotes
All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.
I. F. StoneRead
Politics is a rough and tumble business, and yet there seems to be an effort by the commentariat to sanitise American politics to some type of high-level Victorian debating society.
James CarvilleRead
If we can't have a public debate because the information space is so polluted, or because people are afraid of the reactions of organized trolls, then we can't really have meaningful elections anymore, either.
Anne ApplebaumRead
When you want a nation, that's called nationalism... Black nationalism. A revolutionary is a Black nationalist. He wants a nation.
Malcolm XRead
There is no sea more dangerous than the ocean of practical politics none in which there is more need of good pilotage and of a single, unfaltering purpose when the waves rise high.
Thomas HuxleyRead
Democracy requires an informed citizenry able to question its government.
Richard N. HaassRead