Some quotes from the text:
“ are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.”
“ Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.”
“ Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.”
“ Our behavior is different. How often have you seen a headline like this?--TWO DIE ATTEMPTING RESCUE OF DROWNING CHILD. If a man gets lost in the mountains, hundreds will search and often two or three searchers are killed. But the next time somebody gets lost just as many volunteers turn out.
Poor arithmetic, but very human. It runs through all our folklore, all human religions, all our literature--a racial conviction that when one human needs rescue, others should not count the price.”
“ To permit irresponsible authority is to sell disaster.”
Sci-fi, especially sci-fi from the Cold War era, is massively important as political commentary. I highly advise anyone that hasn’t read this book to pick it up. The movie is great too, but the book is pretty much a different animal.
Anyone else have sci-fi moves that they regard as great political commentary?
I’ll post some more book covers to bump this.
