J.H. Snider, MyAACPS.net’s administrator, has collected here some of his favorite quotes on information and democracy.
Access to Information
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council here: There’s no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department on Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.
–Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe
Mr Prosser: “But the plans were on display…”
Arthur: “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
Mr Prosser: “That’s the display department.”
Arthur: “With a torch.”
Mr Prosser: “Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”
Arthur: “So had the stairs.”
Mr Prosser: “But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”
Arthur: “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.“
–Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe
Free Speech
“Free speech concerning public affairs is more than self-expression; it is the essence of self-government.”
–U.S. Supreme Court, Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. (1964)
[A] function of free speech under our system of goverrnment is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.”
–U.S. Supreme Court, Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. (1949)
Citizen Participation
“We are called to be the architects of the future, not its victims.”
–R. Buckminster Fuller
“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
–Anonymous
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead
“…the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth’s political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal;..”.
– Mark Twain
‘The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
–Robert M. Hutchins, President, University of Chicago, and President, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
