Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.
Interpretation
Propaganda undermines democracy in a similar way that violence undermines a dictatorship.
This quote by William Blum highlights the insidious nature of propaganda in democratic societies, suggesting that just as violence is a tool of oppression in a dictatorship, propaganda serves to manipulate and control public perception and thought in a democracy. Both are mechanisms of power that serve to distort reality and suppress true understanding among the populace.
In practice
In a political debate, one might say, 'As William Blum observed, propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.'
All grandeur, all power, and all subordination to authority rests on the executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappears.
One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.
In real meditation you forget the body. You may be cut to pieces and not feel it at all. You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation.
When holy and devout religious men are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence; so sweet is zealous contemplation.
Generalized intelligence and mental alertness are the most powerful enemies of dictatorship and at the same time the basic conditions of effective democracy.
It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.
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