K.’s Reviews > The Indispensable Zinn: The Essential Writings of the "People's Historian" > Status Update

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience."

"I always have an alternative view. It's not just that I don't want to give Reagan credit for anything, although of course I don't want to give Reagan credit for anything."

#same

"Only people who were both saints and geniuses might possibly be trusted with such [nuclear] weapons. This does not seem an accurate description of the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union."

"If patriotism means supporting your government's policies without question, then we are on our way to a totalitarian state."

Steve Rogers in participant-historian form.

On Langston Hughes and "Ballad of the Landlord": "Any poem that can get anybody fired is worth paying attention to."

"[Historian and White House advisor] Schlesinger had characterized U.S. policies in Vietnam in 1954 as 'part of our general program of international goodwill.' Chomsky commented: 'Unless intended as irony, this remark shows either a colossal cynicism or an inability, on a scale that defies comment, to comprehend elementary phenomena of contemporary history.'"

"What makes us human is our capacity to reach with our mind beyond our immediate sensory capacities, to feel in some degree what others feel totally, and then perhaps to act on such feelings."

"... when it was suggested that the Earth Summit consider the effects of the military on environmental degredation, the United States objected and the suggestion was defeated."

well, at least we're consistent(ly terrible).

"The laboring man is tired of working to build up millions so that millionaires' wives may wear diamonds."