“The pursuit of critical consciousness, the pursuit of social justice through a critical enlightenment, can also be settler moves to innocence - diversions, distractions, which relieve the settler of feelings of guilt or responsibility, and conceal the need to give up land or power or privilege.”

— Eve Tuck

Source: "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", p. 21

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Eve Tuck 2

Indigenous studies scholar

Eve Tuck Indigenous studies scholar

Source: "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", p. 6

“The men of facts wait their turn in grim silence, with that slight tension about the nostrils which the consciousness of carrying a "settler" in the form of a fact or a revolver gives the individual thus armed.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

“In religion, [we find] the pursuit of an ultimate aim, such as salvation or enlightenment, from which all other good things flow. How like the unlimited aim of money! I wonder what the effect would be on our spirituality if we gave up on the pursuit of a unitary abstract goal that we believe to be the key to everything else. How would it feel to release the endless campaign to improve ourselves, to make progress toward a goal? What would it be like just to play instead, just to be? Like wealth, enlightenment is a goal that knows no limit, and in both cases the pursuit of it can enslave. In both cases, I think the object of the pursuit is a spurious substitute for a diversity of things that people really want.”

Charles Eisenstein (1967) American writer

Sacred Economics http://sacred-economics.com/
Sacred Economics (2011)

“And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Karl Hess (1923–1994) American journalist

Barry Goldwater's speech http://www.c-span.org/video/?4018-1/goldwater-1964-acceptance-speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, written by Karl Hess, delivered 16 July 1964, San Francisco.
Context: I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

“America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.”

William S. Burroughs book Naked Lunch

Opening Chapter
Naked Lunch (1959)

“The only way to forestall the work of criticism is through censorship, which has the same relation to criticism that lynching has to justice.”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

"Quotes", Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (1957), Polemical Introduction

“Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

"A Short Essay on Critics" in Art, Literature and the Drama (1858).

“When I speak of reason or rationalism, all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

"On Freedom" in All Life is Problem Solving (1999)
Context: When I speak of reason or rationalism, all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism. A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others — not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others. The emphasis here is on the idea of criticism or, to be more precise, critical discussion. The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff. He is well aware that acceptance or rejection of an idea is never a purely rational matter; but he thinks that only critical discussion can give us the maturity to see an idea from more and more sides and to make a correct judgement of it.

“We have here no traditions and ancient venerable institutions; here, there are no aristocratic elements hallowed by time or bright deeds; here, every man is the first settler of the land, or removed from the settler one or two generations at the furthest; here, we have no architectural monuments calling up old associations; here, we have none of these old popular legends and stories which, in other countries, have exercised a powerful share in the government; here every man is the son of his own works.”

Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825–1868) Canadian politician

Hear, hear.
Legislative Assembly, February 9, 1865

“One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”

Thomas Friedman (1953) American journalist and author

The New York Times, September 8, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09friedman.html.

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