Quote of the Day

[PhilosophyGenius]

"I know not what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones" - Albert Einstein

[Partridge]

"The idea of achieving security through national armament is, at the present state of military technique, a disastrous illusion." - Albert Einstein"

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights." - Albert Einstein

"Most of the major states of history owed their existence to conquest. The conquering peoples established themselves, legally and economically, as the privileged class of the conquered country. They seized for themselves a monopoly of the land ownership and appointed a priesthood from among their own ranks. The priests, in control of education, made the class division of society into a permanent institution and created a system of values by which the people were thenceforth, to a large extent unconsciously, guided in their social behavior." - Albert Einsterin

"We should not assume that 'experts' are the only ones who have a right to express themselves on questions affecting the organization of society" - Albert Einsterin

"Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition. Since, under present circumstances, free and unhindered discussion of these problems has come under a powerful taboo, I consider the foundation of this magazine to be an important public service." - Albert Einstein (written in the first issue of Monthly Review (http://www.monthlyreview.org/) in 1949, on the eve of the full blown onset of 'McCarthysim')

All in all, I'd say Al was a pretty perceptive chap, and not at all the doddering old 'mad genuis' he's presented to us as these days. No wonder the FBI had a 1,500 page file (http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/einstein.htm) on him (and tapped his phones, opened his mail and... oh wait I thought it was only Evil GWB who would do such a thing!)