51 quotes
Surely this new age is not a repudiation of, but a fulfillment of, the American dream. What were the machines for, unless to give man a new freedom to choose how he would live?
The Greening of America (1970)
If there was any doubt about the need for social transformation in 1970, that need is clear and urgent today.
What looks like a man is only a representation of a man who does what the organization requires. He (or it) does not run the machine; he tends it.
The Greening of America (1970)
Thus older forms of wealth were replaced by new forms.
The Greening of America (1970)
One cannot sell anything to a satisfied man. Ergo, make him want something new, or take away something that he has and then sell him something to take its place.
The Greening of America (1970)
Moreover, the human condition, if that is what it is, has been getting steadily worse in the Corporate State; more and more life-denying just as life should be opening up.
The Greening of America (1970)
The American dream was not, at least at the beginning, a rags-to-riches type of narrow materialism.
The Greening of America (1970)
Of all the qualities of human beings that are injured, narrowed, or repressed in the Corporate State, it is consciousness, the most precious and the most fragile, that suffers the most.
The Greening of America (1970)
To the American people of 1789, their nation promised a new way of life: each individual a free man; each having the right to seek his own happiness; a republican form of government in which the people would be sovereign; and no arbitrary power over people's lives.
The Greening of America (1970)
A work of art is not valued because it changes itself for each person who views it, it retains its own integrity and thus means something unique and marvelous to those who see it.
The Greening of America (1970)
Marx saw exploitation in terms of the rewards of human labor, but we can see it in terms of all the values of our society.
The Greening of America (1970)
They operate by administrative discretion and authority, not the rule of law: There is no legislature, no group lawmaking body.
The Liberals' Mistake (1987)
"there is every reason to fear that the State is growing ever more powerful, more autonomous, more indifferent to its own inhabitants."
The Greening of America (1970)
We have to look beyond the politicians to see a different future.
The Liberals' Mistake (1987)
There are no protections of autonomy and free speech.
The Liberals' Mistake (1987)
Our history shows that what we must do is assert domination over the machine, to guide it so that it works for the values of our choice.
The Greening of America (1970)
Whether you're complaining about spiritual emptiness or material emptiness, you're ultimately complaining about the same system that's creating both kinds of emptiness.
The Greening of America turns 40 (2010)
It gave people a great leap of hope, made people feel good. This was a world that could get better, a whole lot better. I might say to those who stuck with it in some way or other they will still swear by the values of the '60s.
The Greening of America turns 40 (2010)
Thus we have the spectacle, still to be seen today, of the western rancher who accepts federal aid for his cattle operations and federal aid for his grazing requirements, but bitterly opposes all social programs that do not concern him, and the philosophy that lies behind them.
The Greening of America (1970)
I see self-destruction now on a grand scale. That is, the unwillingness to pay for the things society needs. That's the most basic kind of self-destruction.
The Greening of America turns 40 (2010)