Tariq Ali Quotes

Tariq Ali delivers a bold, questioning take on politics and truth that will intrigue the curious.

16 quotes

1. The government of the US has no moral authority to elect itself as the judge over human rights in Cuba, where there has not been a single case of disappearance, torture or extra-judicial execution since 1959, and where despite the economic blockade, there are levels of health, education and culture that are internationally recognised.

2. We live, after all, in a world where illusions are sacred and truth profane.

3. For all their incoherence and senseless rage, their message is attractive to those layers of the population who yearn for some order in their lives. If the fanatics promise to feed them and educate their children they are prepared to forgo the delights of CNN and BBC World.

4. Even if you reject everything, it is always better to know what it is you are rejecting.

5. Scotland's political identity was destroyed, and a huge Scottish emigration to North America followed the brutal Highland clearances. These included every layer of Scottish society, not just the remnants of the defeated clans.

6. When a country is invaded and attacked and people resist it's important to speak up and to say they have the right to resist and to defend their right to resist.

7. I think another crisis, which is being predicted now and which will be worse than what we saw in 2008, could bring the European Union down unless there are huge reforms from within to democratize, to give more power to the regions, etc. If this doesn't happen, the European Union will fall.

8. The European Union is effectively a union dominated by the German political and economic elite. Its main function is to serve as a nucleus for financial capitalism and to ease the road for that capitalism. The other functions just irritate everyone: it's undemocratic; decisions are not made by parliament; the European Parliament is not sovereign.

9. Anthony Powell was the most European of 20th-century British novelists.

10. I think democracy is on the decline in the West. Ruling parties are the same: neo-liberalism at home and wars abroad.

11. One cannot discuss Europe without understanding US imperial hegemony, both globally and certainly in Europe as it stands.

12. The Enlightenment attacked religion - Christianity, mainly - for two reasons: that it was a set of ideological delusions, and that it was a system of institutional oppression, with immense powers of persecution and intolerance.

13. I think the Americans fished out the same condom but found it had too many holes in it.

14. Basically, we are witnessing the twilight of democracy.

15. One could think of ways to defeat the censor. I could put up the answers on my Facebook page or website or Counterpunch. In today's world it's not easy to suppress information. Technology has helped us a great deal.

16. In January 1961, the United States severed diplomatic relations in response to Cuban nationalisation of U.S.-owned sugar plantations, banks and businesses.