Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear.
Naomi KleinRead
Those looking for ideology in the White House should consider this: For the men who rule our world, rules are for other people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the hypocrisy of leaders who impose rules on others while not adhering to them themselves.
Naomi Klein's quote critiques the disconnect between those in power and the general populace. It suggests that while leaders may advocate for various ideologies or rules, they often do not follow these rules personally, indicating a significant moral and ethical divide in governance versus the lived experience of ordinary people. This exposes a troubling reality where the powerful operate under a different set of standards than those they expect from the citizens they govern.
Themes
IdeologyPowerHypocrisyGovernanceLeadership
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate, one might reference this quote to discuss the ethics of leadership.
More from Naomi Klein
All quotes βBecause it is such a huge crisis, because it puts us on a firm science-based deadline, it's a once-in-a-century opportunity to build a better society and address raging inequality, create huge numbers of jobs, rebuild our public infrastructure. But, we can't do it unless we break every single rule in the free-market playbook. Which is why the worst people in the world all deny climate change.
Naomi KleinRead
Terrorism doesn't just blow up buildings; it blasts every other issue off the political map. The spectre of terrorism - real and exaggerated - has become a shield of impunity, protecting governments around the world from scrutiny for their human rights abuses.
Naomi KleinRead
Everybody that's trying to get anything progressive done in this country knows that the biggest barrier is getting money out of politics.
Naomi KleinRead
I think I would say that there is absolutely no way to reconcile an austerity agenda with climate action. Our political class needs to understand that the fight against austerity and the fight for climate action are the same fight.
Naomi KleinRead
I think the fossil fuel industry is genuinely freaked out by the combination of the price collapse, the divestment movement, and that fact that renewable energy is getting so cheap so fast.
Naomi KleinRead
Similar quotes
My father joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did.
Condoleezza RiceRead
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
Ronald ReaganRead
There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.
Ray BradburyRead
The right to vote is the easiest of all rights to grant.
Robert KennedyRead
Administration has managed the extraordinary feat of having, at one and the same time, the worst relations with our allies, the worst relations with our adversaries, and the most serious upheavals in the developing world since the end of the Second World War.
Henry A. KissingerRead
Every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term a right to employ all the means requisite . . . to the attainment of the ends of such power.
Alexander HamiltonRead