The Four Freedoms
abortion
border-jumping
sodomy
dope
In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?
The Four Freedoms
abortion
border-jumping
sodomy
dope
Deviants and criminals, given the chance, will dwell endlessly on their own deviance and criminality. Repression at least obliges them to change the subject.
To tyrannize over a people it is necessary to humiliate them, and nothing is more humiliating than declaring normal acts heinous crimes.
A nation that regards speech as the fundamental liberty is a nation unable to keep its mouth shut.
The loss of America’s appetite for full-on war has whetted it for petty military adventure.
It is perfectly possible to hate people without killing them, and vice versa.
Sentence first — verdict afterwards — reasons last of all.
Witch-hunts work especially well among people who are too sophisticated to believe in witches.
It is always important, in evaluating a policy, to consider how many people you will have to kill to implement it.
Government, though it never depends on the consent of the governed, often depends on large numbers of the governed believing that it does.