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About this quote

What does it mean?
Control of ideas by elites ensures power without need for force.
In plain terms
If they control thoughts people will obey themselves.
What can you take from it?
Ideas shape power more than soldiers do.

Where it applies

  • media criticism
  • political science
  • activism

Putting it to work

  • media literacy
  • questioning authority
  • promoting free thought

Questions to consider

  • Who shapes your views?
  • When do you obey without thinking?

Another view

People still resist control so self-policing is not guaranteed.

More from Howard Zinn

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  3. The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again - freedom of speech, freedo…

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