Americans have a severe disease - worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Starting reforms in the Soviet Union was only possible from above, only from above. Any attempt to go from below was suppressed, suppressed in a most resolute way.
Interpretation
Reforms in the Soviet Union could only be initiated by those in power, as grassroots movements were actively suppressed.
Mikhail Gorbachev's quote highlights the significant challenge of implementing reforms in a rigid political system like the Soviet Union. He emphasizes that meaningful change had to originate from the top echelons of power because any grassroots efforts to instigate reform were met with strong resistance and suppression, illustrating the struggle between authority and the desire for change.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of political leadership in enacting reforms.
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.
It doesn't need to be the same every day, doesn't need to be the same shower I use, the same restaurant I go to, the same hour I go to sleep. I've always been very flexible. I don't care if I practice at nine in the morning or 10 P.M.
For a habit to stay changed, people must believe change is possible.
The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation.
Oil depletion and climate change will create an entirely new context in which political struggles will be played out. Within that context, it is not just freedom, democracy, and equality that are at stake, but the survival of billions of humans and of whole ecosystems.
The full horror of what has happened in the United States earlier today is now becoming clearer. It is hard even to contemplate the utter carnage and terror which has engulfed so many innocent people. We've offered President Bush and the American people our solidarity, our profound sympathy, and our prayers. But it is plain that citizens of many countries round the world, including Britain, will have been caught up in this terror.
We Americans have a chance to become someday a nation in which all racial stocks and classes can exist in their own selfhoods, but meet on a basis of respect and equality and live together, socially, economically, and politically.
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