They were so ignorant! Young men and women, educated very carefully to be apolitical, to be technicians who thought they disliked politics, making them putty in the hands of their rulers, just like always. It was appalling how stupid they were, really, and he could not help lashing into them. Kim Stanley Robinson
About This Quote

The great writer Mark Twain in 1878 wrote in his book “Life on the Mississippi”; “They were so ignorant! Young men and women, educated very carefully to be apolitical, to be technicians who thought they disliked politics, making them putty in the hands of their rulers, just like always. It was appalling how stupid they were, really, and he could not help lashing into them.” This quote from Mark Twain is a description of the people of France at the time of Napoleon’s reign. People who were educated to be apolitical and not be political had no idea that Napoleon Bonaparte had become their dictator. All they knew was that it was a great ruler who had made trade routes across the ocean safe for all those going about their daily business.

Source: Red Mars

Some Similar Quotes
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  2. Politics determines who has the power, not who has the truth. - Paul Krugman
  3. Immer wieder behauptete Unwahrheiten werden nicht zu Wahrheiten, sondern, was schlimmer ist, zu Gewohnheiten. - Oliver Hassencamp
  4. What people want, mainly, is to be told by some plausible authority that what they are already doing is right. I don't know know of a quicker way to become unpopular than to disagree. - John Brunner
  5. A people religiously right, will not long remain politically wrong. - William Arnot
More Quotes By Kim Stanley Robinson
  1. They lived like monkeys still, while their new god powers lay around them in the weeds.
  2. The word of God came down to man as rain to soil, and the result was mud, not clear water. (Bistami) Pg. 128
  3. The vaunted experience of age was perhaps only a matter of wounds and scarring -- that young minds to old minds might be as young bodies to old bodies: stronger, more vital, less twisted by damage.
  4. You just don't have faith! " Frank repeated." Well I hope I never get it! It's like being hit by a hammer in the head!
  5. We dream, we wake on a cold hillside, we pursue the dream again. In the beginning was the dream, and the work of disenchantment never ends.
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