By very conservative estimates, Turkish repression of Kurds in the 1990s falls in the category of Kosovo. It peaked in the early 1990s; one index is the flight of more than a million Kurds from the countryside to the unofficial Kurdish capital, Diyarbakir, from 1990 to 1994, as the Turkish army was devastating the countryside.
The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.
Debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous, far larger than credit card debt. It's a trap for the rest of your life because the laws are designed so that you can't get out of it. If a business, say, gets in too much debt, it can declare bankruptcy, but individuals can almost never be relieved of student debt through bankruptcy.
There has been a huge attack against private sector unions. Actually, that's been going on since the Second World War.
In the US, there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population.
One of the most interesting reactions to come out of 1968 was in the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, which believed there was a 'crisis of democracy' from too much participation of the masses.
The public is strongly in favor of the Kyoto Protocols, so strongly in favor that a majority of Bush voters thought that he was in favor of it. They are simply unaware.
International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn't pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don't have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.
I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.
If you are giving a graduate course you don't try to impress the students with oratory, you try to challenge them, get them to question you.
The neo-cons constitute a radical reactionary fringe of the planning spectrum, but the spectrum is narrow.
Everyone knows that when you look at a television ad, you do not expect to get information. You expect to see delusion and imagery.
I have known people who are working class or craftsmen, who happen to be more intellectual than professors.
If you're worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it's almost all attributable to military spending and the totally dysfunctional health program.
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.