John Twelve Hawks citations

Page 2

“Many physicists these days sound like the Delphic oracle - with equations.”

“One cliché endlessly offered up by the people supporting government surveillance is that there needs to be a “trade-off” between security and privacy. But this is a trade that goes only one way. It’s clear that we’ve lost control over what personal information is public and what we prefer to keep private. The new reality is that they see us, but we can’t see them.”

“Lying, not love, is the fundamental indication of humanity.”

“True freedom is tolerant. It gives people the right to live and think in new ways.”

“Gradually, I realized that the surveillance cameras plus the email and cell phone monitoring was creating a Virtual Panopticon – a digital prison created and maintained by computer networks that enclosed all of us within its invisible walls.”

“Many of our leaders have gone past the old-fashioned politics of the democratic era and entered into the politics of fear. People running for national office no longer emphasize their views about the economy or social change. The leading political question of our time has become: who can ease our nightmares?”

“All the doctors that have examined you state that you appear to have no friends or family relationships and you are incapable of any sort of empathy. In short…you’re perfect for this job.”

“At the training camp, I was told that doors always open for a man wearing a hard hat and carrying a clipboard.”

“All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things I didn´t need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.”

“Human beings are tool-making animals. Since the prehistoric era, we have created and used a wide variety of objects. But now a significant change is about to occur. In the near future, we will simply become another object that can be monitored, tracked and controlled within a vast machine.”

“When people decide that a certain way of faith is destined and inevitable, hatred and intolerance follow. Instead of saying, 'The Light is within you, choose the Light,' the message becomes 'Agree with our version of history or we'll kill you.”

“In Orwell’s 1984, all Party members must assemble for a “Two Minutes Hate” session where they watch a propaganda film showing the Party’s enemies. The establishment of the Virtual Panopticon insures that these group meetings aren’t necessary. Those in power now have the resources to deliver a political message tailored to the specific fears of the individual citizen. Yes, we’ll still have political rallies and conventions, but these will be empty gestures retained from the past.”

“The Grid exists even if you don't see the lines.”

“Half the things you've been taught in school are just convenient fictions. History is a puppet show for childish minds.”

“Most conscious thought is simply an attempt to claim ‘authorship’ for a choice that has already been made. Our thoughts are just an ongoing attempt to explain what we’ve already decided.”

“Political affiliation is not a relevant part of this decision; privacy and personal freedom should be fundamental right for everyone.”

“It took me years to realize that a computer would never truly be able to say cogito ego sum although dozens of lurid Hollywood movies about robots want to leave that impression. A computer thinks…. that is, it realizes it has been switched on…but it doesn't know it exists.”

“Bland is the truest expression of an advanced civilization. It took a great deal of money to create this pocket of cool, calm bland among the rickshaw men and the beggar children tapping on the car windows.”

“No machine can daydream. When they’re not switched on, they’re as cold as a toaster in a midnight kitchen.”

“The warrior uses the power of the brain to be deliberate and the power of the heart to be instinctive.”

“The first icon of the 21st Century is the closed-circuit surveillance camera, slowly panning back and forth as we move beneath its gaze.”

“Virtue is admirable, but boring.”

“When a person speculates about my identity, it reveals something about their own background and preferences. If the canvas is blank; the only thing people can see on its surface is themselves.”

“Sometimes the best way to find the truth is to create a fiction.”

“Love is just another means of manipulation. We can use that emotion like we use hatred and fear.”

“There was no need to worry about religion or philosophy; the truth was determined by whoever was in power.”

“Peace and prosperity were possible only if people stopped asking new questions and accepted the available answers.”

“You need to study history, Doctor. All great changes are based on pain and destruction.”

“Most people go through life never knowing the truth about the major events of their time. They're watching a farce performed at the edge of the stage while the real drama is going on behind the curtain.”