“Societies grow into systems. The systems require management and are therefore increasingly wielded, like a tool or a weapon, by those who have power. The rest of the population is still needed to do specific things. But the citizens are not needed to contribute to the form or direction of the society. The more "advanced" the civilization, the more irrelevant the citizen becomes.”

Voltaire's Bastards (1992)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Societies grow into systems. The systems require management and are therefore increasingly wielded, like a tool or a we…" by John Ralston Saul?
John Ralston Saul photo
John Ralston Saul 85
Canadian author and essayist 1947

Related quotes

Margaret Chan photo

“Health systems are social institutions. They do far more for society than deliver babies and pills, like a post office delivering parcels. Properly managed and adequately financed, a fair and equitable health system contributes to social cohesion and stability.”

Margaret Chan (1947) Director-General of the World Health Organization

"Exclusive Interview with WHO's Dr. Margaret Chan" http://www.usaid.gov/news-information/frontlines/global-healthiraq/exclusive-interview-whos-dr-margaret-chan, April-May 2011.

Talal Abu-Ghazaleh photo

“Citizens of a modern society need […] more than that ordinary "common sense" which was defined by Stuart Chase as that which tells you that the world is flat.”

Stuart Chase (1888–1985) American economist

Stuart Chase in S. I. Hayakawa (1949) Language in Thought and Action. p. 29-30

Herbert Marcuse photo

“Democracy, according to Ross Feingold, is considered the most legitimate form of government because the power of choice rests with the people. “But when this power dynamic is altered and citizens lose their influence, the legitimacy of the system is threatened.””

Olusegun Adeniyi (1965) Nigerian journalist

That is where we are in Nigeria today because the choices made by citizens with their ballots are being increasingly rendered useless. And this threat to ‘the legitimacy on the system’ is coming from our courts, including the highest court in the country whose decisions are not only final but affect those of lower courts.
Politics In Nigeria: When Judges Become Our Electoral College https://www.opinionnigeria.com/politics-in-nigeria-when-judges-become-our-electoral-college-by-olusegun-adeniyi/ (February 28, 2020), Opinion Nigeria.

Calvin Coolidge photo
Barack Obama photo

“The world needs specialists and highly trained people with advanced degrees, no question about it. But the world also needs diversity and versatility. It needs people who know as much about our value system as they do about our solar system system.”

Roger Smith (executive) (1925–2007) CEO

Roger B. Smith, chairman, General Motors Corporation, at Albion College, Mich. quoted in: U.S. News & World Report Vol 92 (1982). p. 66.

Susan Sontag photo

Related topics