1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)
Context: There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains. To put an end to it will be neither a short nor an easy task, but it can be done. We must have complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs, so that the people may know beyond peradventure whether the corporations obey the law and whether their management entitles them to the confidence of the public. It is necessary that laws should be passed to prohibit the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes; it is still more necessary that such laws should be thoroughly enforced. Corporate expenditures for political purposes, and especially such expenditures by public-service corporations, have supplied one of the principal sources of corruption in our political affairs.
“[T]his Court now concludes that independent [political] expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.”
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 50 http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZS.html (21 January 2010).
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Anthony Kennedy 28
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1936Related quotes
Dissenting, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. ___ (2010).
In "Crimes against nature" in Rolling Stone magazine (11 December 2003).
Source: Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971), p. 24–25
Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726)
Source: Freedom from Fear (1991)
Context: It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moga-gati is aberration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption. Just as chanda-gati, when not the result of sheer avarice, can be caused by fear of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one loves, so fear of being surpassed, humiliated or injured in some way can provide the impetus for ill will. And it would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched.
Source: Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972), p. 494
From 1980s onwards, Buckminster Fuller Talks Politics (1982)
Protectionism: the -ism which teaches that waste makes wealth, 1888, paragraph 155 http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/sumner-protectionism-the-ism-which-teaches-that-waste-makes-wealth.
“No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted.”
Source: Germania (98), Chapter 19