It was characteristic of the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and of the Communist movements in Europe after 1930 that they re...cruited their members from this mass of apparently indifferent people whom all other parties had given up as too apathetic or too stupid for their attention. The result was that the majority of their membership consisted of people who never before had appeared on the political scene. This permitted the introduction of entirely new methods into political propaganda, and indifference to the arguments of political opponents; these movements not only placed themselves outside and against the party system as a whole, they found a membership that had never been reached, never been "spoiled" by the party system. Therefore they did not need to refute opposing arguments and consistently preferred methods which ended in death rather than persuasion, which spelled terror rather than conviction.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Instead of seeing society as a collection of clearly defined "interest groups," society must be reconceptualized as a complex netw...ork of groups of interacting individuals whose membership and communication patterns are seldom confined to one such group alone.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with... mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The difference between style and taste is never easy to define, but style tends to be centered on the social, and taste upon the i...ndividual. Style then works along axes of similarity to identify group membership, to relate to the social order; taste works within style to differentiate and construct the individual. Style speaks about social factors such as class, age, and other more flexible, less definable social formations; taste talks of the individual inflection of the social.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience... of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The recent attempt to secure a charter from the State of North Dakota for a lottery company, the pending effort to obtain from the... State of Louisiana a renewal of the charter of the Louisiana State Lottery, and the establishment of one or more lottery companies at Mexican towns near our border, have served the good purpose of calling public attention to an evil of vast proportions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I thought that when they said Atlantic Charter, that meant me and everybody in Africa and Asia and everywhere. But it seems like t...he Atlantic is an ocean that does not touch anywhere but North America and Europe.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To the small naked children, running lightly in the sun beneath the palm-trees, the little girl's sex membership is as clear as he...r brother's, but there is less that she can do with it. When she trips and falls, she clutches at her head, or tries to fold her arms across her chest. Her femininity is concealed deep within her, nothing that she can touch and see, depend upon or flaunt. In those societies where children's sex membership is recognized by adults, in which the men treat the little girls with flirtatious attention and the women tease and challenge the small boys, the little girls respond with movements of the entire body, which undulates and postures in delicious indulgence of feminine response. The small boy struts, sometimes with emphasis on his penis, more often carrying hatchet, knife, stick, pole, in upward positions as he marches, parries, performs. His behaviour, however symbolic, is to the extent that it is male a concentrated phallic exaggeration, while his sister's is more diffuse and involves the whole body. The little boy is sure about his specific maleness, but seems not to be so sure of his adequacy to operate it. He supplements with various symbolic objects. Very often he shouts, adding the vigour of his voice to the vigour of his posturing.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition... on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the sources of cultural attitudes and values.... Because myth anchors the present in the past it is a sociological charter for a future society which is an exact replica of the present one.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »