“Widespread public ignorance is a type of pollution that infects the political system rather than our physical environment.”

— Ilya Somin

Source: Democracy and Political ignorance: Why smaller government is better (2013), p. 6
Context: In the same way, it is not necessarily paternalistic to advocate the restriction of air pollution. Individual citizens and firms may produce more air pollution than any of them actually want because they know that there is little to be gained from uncoordinated individual restraint. If I avoid driving a gas-guzzling car, the impact on the overall level of air pollution w ill be utterly insignificant. So I have no incentive to take it into account in making my driving decisions even if I care greatly about reducing air pollution. Widespread public ignorance is a type of pollution that infects the political system rather than our physical environment.

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 "Widespread public ignorance is a type of pollution that infects the political system rather than our physical environme…" by Ilya Somin?

Ilya Somin1

American law school professor 1973

Related quotes

“It is the system, rather than individuals, that is the source of pollution and degradation. My prison-house environment is but another manifestation of the Midas-hand, whose cursed touch turns everything to the brutal service of Mammon.”

Alexander Berkman book Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912), Ch. 18: "The Solitary".

“Particle physics suffers more from being infected by the socio-political mood of the day than from lack of spectacular opportunities for major and profound discoveries.”

Leon M. Lederman (1922–2018) American mathematician and physicist

Remark by Lederman during 2002 interview. <br class="br"> "Future of the field calls for charisma and courage" Kurt Riesselmann, FermiNews Volume 25, June 28, 2002, Number 11 http://www.fnal.gov/pub/ferminews/ferminews02-06-28/p3.html

“It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.”

Dan Quayle (1947) American politician, lawyer

Misattributed

“Any system of public administration inevitably reflects its environment.”

Leonard D. White (1891–1958) American historian

Leonard D. White (1932, 22), as cited in: Donald P. Moynihan. " Our Usable Past: A Historical Contextual Approach to Administrative Values https://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/images/publications/facstaff/moynihan/PAR69(5)UsablePast.pdf." Public Administration Review 69.5 (2009): 813-822.

“Democracy is unstable as a political system as long as it remains a political system and nothing more, instead of being, as it should be, not only a form of government but a type of society, and a manner of life which is in harmony with that type. To make it a type of society requires an advance along two lines. It involves, in the first place, the resolute elimination of all forms of special privilege which favour some groups and depress other, whether their source be differences of environment, of education, or of pecuniary income. It involves, in the second place, the conversion of economic power, now often an irresponsible tyrant, into a servant of society, working within clearly defined limits and accountable for its actions to a public authority.”

R. H. Tawney (1880–1962) English philosopher

Equality (1931)

“Systems thinking is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns rather than static snapshots. It is a set of general principles spanning fields as diverse as physical and social sciences, engineering and management”

Peter M. Senge book The Fifth Discipline

Source: The Fifth Discipline (1990), p. 68

“Public Opinion, which is an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
Context: England has done one thing; it has invented and established Public Opinion, which is an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.

“It's like there's this predator energy on this planet, and this predator energy feeds upon the essence of the spirit, feeds upon the essence of the human being, the spirit. This predator energy can take fossil fuel and other resources out of the Earth, turn it into fuel, to run a machine system. But in order for there to be a need for that system, and in order for that system to work, they have to mine our minds to get at the essence of our spirit. In the same way the external mining takes place, it pollutes—we see now, people understand how it poisons the environment, the water, the air pollution—the mining of the essence, the mining of the spirit, mining our minds … the pollution from that is all the neurotic, distorted, insecure behavior patterns that we develop. That's the pollution. Because in order for this predatory system, this disease, to work, we must not be able to use our minds in a clear coherent manner. Because if we use our minds in a clear coherent manner, we will not accept the unacceptable.”

John Trudell (1946–2015) Native American rights activist, musician, poet

Columbus Day Speech, San Francisco (1992)

“An organization is a subordinate system of a specific larger system, the cooperative system, whose components are physical, biological, and personal systems. The relations with other organizations… are outside this specific cooperative system. Other organizations are a part of the social environment of the organization. It is for this reason I have used the phrase "complex of organizations" rather than "system." Usually the most significant relationships of a unit organization are those with the specific cooperative system of which it is a part. It is this system which primarily and on the whole in most instances determines the chief conditions of the organization's existence.”

Chester Barnard book The Functions of the Executive

Source: The Functions of the Executive (1938), p. 98-99, footnote

“Most of the time our discussions are political, because it's hard not to be political in this country (not like in Britain, where you can ignore the rather sedate way everything's going downhill).”

Jani Allan (1952) South African columnist and broadcaster

Speaking in 1997 during an interview with The Independent about her South-Africa related political discussions with friend Mangosuthu Buthelezi http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970406/ai_n14117510 <br class="br">Other

“Widespread public ignorance is a type of pollution that infects the political system rather than our physical environment.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Ilya Somin1

Related quotes

Related topics