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"That's our nuclear weapons strategy [going to frighten people], as of the early post-Cold War years. And I think this is a real failure of the intellectual community, including scholarship and the media. It's not like you had headlines all over the place. And it's not secret, the documents are there. And I think that's probably the right picture."
"Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society."
"Government may not redistribute private wealth or grant special privileges to any individual or group."
"So take social media; take a look at the way they're used. In a lot of ways they're used constructively; lot of things are done that couldn't be done before. On the other hand a lot of the effect of social media is to set up extremely superficial contacts amongst people."
"Like most terms of political discourse, socialism has more or less, lost its meaning. Socialism used to mean something. If you go back far enough it meant basically control of production by producers, elimination of wage labor, democratization of all spheres of life; production, commerce, education, media, workers control of factories, community control of communities, and so on. That was socialism once. But it hasn't meant that for a hundred years. Socialism meant something different."
"The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect."
"As far as U.S. intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don't know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they're developing what's called 'nuclear capability,' which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That's not a crime."
"The old-fashioned idea is that responsibility falls upon those who borrow and lend. Money was not borrowed by campesinos, assembly plant workers, or slum-dwellers. The mass of the population gained little from borrowing, indeed often suffered grievously from its effects."
"After the first International Days of Protest in October, 1965, Senator Mansfield criticized the 'sense of utter irresponsibility' shown by the demonstrators."
"The only way we can put a permanent end to terrorism is to stop participating in it."
"The responsibility of the writer as a moral agent is to try to bring the truth about matters of human significance to an audience that can do something about them."
"Women taking care of children . . . it makes sense to pay them for that work . . . they should be paid for it, but that requires tax payments. And the same is true about protection of the environment."
"There is no reason to accept the doctrines crafted to sustain power and privilege, or to believe that we are constrained by mysterious and unknown social laws."
"The US intervened in the Philippines to uplift and christianize the backward people, killing a couple of hundred thousand of them and destroying the place. The same thing happened in Haiti, the same thing happened with other countries."
"The people who live on the land - Israelis and Palestinians - have a right to live in security and peace."
"The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is."
"The freer the society gets, the more dangerous the great beast becomes and the more you have to be careful to cage it somehow."
"One might ask why tobacco is legal and marijuana not. A possible answer is suggested by the nature of the crop."
"Nixon at one point informs Kissinger . . . that he wanted bombing of Cambodia. And Kissinger loyally transmits the order to the Pentagon to carry out a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves . . . genocide."
"Modern China; one also finds many things that are really quite admirable."