Rajiv Ashrafi

“Ours was now a country in which the cost of replacing a broken machine with a newer model was typically lower than the cost of having it fixed by an expert, which itself was typically lower than the cost of sourcing the parts and figuring out how to fix it yourself. This fact alone virtually guaranteed technological tyranny, which was perpetuated not by the technology itself but by the ignorance of everyone who used it daily and yet failed to understand it. To refuse to inform yourself about the basic operation and maintenance of the equipment you depended on was to passively accept that tyranny and agree to its terms: when your equipment works, you’ll work, but when your equipment breaks down you’ll break down, too. Your possessions would possess you.”
― Edward Snowden, Permanent Record

“We started out making men in about the state of mind which I suppose created them in the first place—we had run out of kinds of women, and had to think of something else.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons

“The government should be afraid of the people, the people shouldn't be afraid of the government.”
― Edward Snowden, Permanent Record

“I decided that I was going to fewer student parties after I ripped part of the sleeve out of my black dress helping a freshman climb a fence. By the end of the first semester, what I wanted to do most in the world was invite a few of my husband’s students over for tea and drop them down the well.”
― Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons