Jacob

“Sociologists have frequently observed that governments use punishment primarily as a tool of social control, and thus the extent or severity of punishment is often unrelated to actual crime patterns.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Unlike lying, an imagined reality is something that everyone believes in, and as long as this communal belief persists, the imagined reality exerts force in the world.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“Rationalizing mass incarceration or mass deportation on the grounds that it is meant to rid our nation of “criminals” perpetuates the false notion that “criminals” are a monolithic, deviant group that is fundamentally different than “us” and therefore unworthy of our concern.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google.”
― Yuval Noah Harari