Howard Zinn Quotes About Democracy

Quotes about: Democracy

• Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.

  Howard Zinn

  Meaningful, Truth, Law

  Howard Zinn (1997). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.383, Seven Stories Press

• If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, not as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.

  Howard Zinn

  Loyalty, Country, Government

  Howard Zinn (1990). “Declarations of Independence: Cross-examining American Ideology”, Perennial

• Democracy depends on citizens being informed, and since our media, especially television (which is the most important source of news for most Americans) reports mostly what the people in power do, and repeats what the people in power say, the public is badly informed, and it means we cannot really say we have a functioning democracy.

  Howard Zinn

  Mean, Media, People

  Interview with Stefan Sirucek, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 30, 2010.

• They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution and they were invisible in the new political democracy. They were the women of early America.

  Howard Zinn

  America, Political, Independence

  Howard Zinn (2014). “A People's History of the United States”, p.91, Pan Macmillan

• Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.

  Howard Zinn

  Direct Action, Voting, Democracy

  Howard Zinn (2012). “The Historic Unfulfilled Promise”, p.208, City Lights Publishers

• We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources are coveted by multinational corporations. That hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism....

  Howard Zinn

  Country, Rights, Government

  "A People's History of the United States". Book by Howard Zinn, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1980.

• Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.

  Howard Zinn

  Running, Democracies Have, Rights

  "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

• Behind the deceptive words designed to entice people into supporting violence -- words like democracy, freedom, self-defense, national security -- there is the reality of enormous wealth in the hands of a few, while billions of people in the world are hungry, sick, homeless.

  Howard Zinn

  Reality, Self, Hands

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.9, Beacon Press

• If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come, if history were any guide, from the top. It would come through citizen's movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed.

  Howard Zinn

  Democracy, Citizens, Movement

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.674, Routledge

• Civil disobedience is not something outside the realm of democracy. Democracy requires civil disobedience. Without civil disobedience democracy does not exist.

  Howard Zinn

  Democracy, Doe, Realms

• Democracy depends on people speaking out, and in times of great crisis, on people creating a commotion.

  Howard Zinn

  Creating, People, Democracy

  Source: openvault.wgbh.org

• Perhaps the most important thing I learned was about democracy, that democracy is not our government, our constitution, our legal structure. Too often they are enemies of democracy.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, Enemy, Democracy

  Howard Zinn (2010). “You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times”, p.10, Beacon Press

• The democratic principle, enunciated in the words of the Declaration of Independence, declared that government was secondary, that the people who established it were primary. Thus, the future of democracy depended on the people, and their growing consciousness of what was the decent way to relate to their fellow human beings all over the world.

  Howard Zinn

  Government, People, Independence

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.682, Routledge

• Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral. In a world already moving in certain directions, where wealth and power are already distributed in certain ways, neutrality means accepting the way things are now. It is a world of clashing interests – war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism – and it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Moving, Mean

  Howard Zinn (2009). “Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice”, p.7, Harper Collins

• Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. It is a corrective to the sluggishness of "the proper channels," a way of breaking through passages blocked by tradition and prejudice. It is disruptive and troublesome, but it is a necessary disruption, a healthy troublesome.

  Howard Zinn

  Law, Healthy, Democracy

  Howard Zinn (1997). “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.383, Seven Stories Press

• Will Iraq be a democracy? The question is, 'Will America be a democracy?'

  Howard Zinn

  Iraq, America, Democracy

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