Dominic Streatfeild > Quotes

“The United States has destabilized the peace of the whole world.”
― Dominic Streatfeild, A History of the World Since 9/11

“Over 50 per cent of all American crime over the last 75 years has been blamed on drugs, because drugs are the single most convenient scapegoat for a society that is unable to blame itself. When it comes to explaining the presence of those drugs themselves, blame is still not placed on American consumers, but on the foreign supplies who grow the stuff. In America, there are no villains - only victims.”
― Dominic Streatfeild, Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography

“Make no mistake about it,’ George W. Bush told the American people the day after the attacks. ‘We will win.’ We haven’t. The world is not less, but more, dangerous. It’s one thing to launch a war with certain goals and not to attain those goals. It’s another entirely to declare war and achieve the exact opposite of your stated intentions. If there is anything worse than losing a war, surely this is it?”
― Dominic Streatfeild, A History of the World Since 9/11

“Brainwashing, a comforting bedtime story that made us all feel better, should have outlived its usefulness years ago. Such was the myth's potency, however, that it didn't. When we were scared or unsure, we called it upon again to explain away the things that made us nervous. In the 1950s and 1960s it was Russians. In the 1970s it was new religious movements and advertising agencies. In the 1980s it was heavy-metal music. Like Batman, brainwashing came to save us. 'It's not your fault,' it told us. 'There's nothing you could have done. You're not responsible: you're just a victim.' Of course, this was exactly what we wanted to hear - which was why we called it up so often. 'It was a cultural manifestation of the time,' says Robert Jay Lifton, 'and we're not through with it - by any means.'

Today, once again, 'brainwashing' has been dusted down and given a new coat of paint. This time the threat is a heady combination of terrorism and religion. Why would anyone want to bomb the World Trade Centre? How could these people do this to us? Is it the virgins and the rivers of wine? There must be a reason.

There is, of course. There are lots of reasons. But none of them is 'brainwashing'.”
― Dominic Streatfeild, Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control