Governance & Power

“In twenty years, the USSR will be producing almost twice as much industrial output as is now produced in the entire non socialist world.”

“Once we recognise this with all the clearness that the clearness of the fact itself demands we must then rise up against the 19th century. If it is evident that there was in it something extraordinary and incomparable, it is no less so that it must have suffered from certain radical vices, certain constitutional defects, when it brought into being a caste of men- the mass-man in revolt who are placing in imminent danger those very principles to which they owe their existence. If that human type continues to be master in Europe, thirty years will suffice to send our continent back to barbarism. Legislative and industrial technique will disappear with the same facility with which so many trade secrets have often disappeared.”

“I pour my crisis regarding democratic thinking and universal feeling onto paper because not I alone—know this—not I alone, if not today, then in ten years, will be assailed by the desire to have a clearly delineated world and a clearly delineated God. Prophecy: democracy, universality, equality, will not be capable of satisfying you. Your desire for duality will grow stronger and stronger—a desire for a dual world—dual thinking—dual mythology—in the future we will be paying homage to two different systems simultaneously and a magic world will find a place for itself next to a rational one.”

“[...] we have been expressly evolved by nature-with all our impulses and deepest instincts-for the purpose of solving the economic problem. If the economic problem is solved, mankind will be deprived of its traditional purpose. Will this be a benefit? If one believes at all in the real values of life, the prospect at least opens up the possibility of benefit. Yet I think with dread of the readjustment of the habits and instincts of the ordinary man, bred into him for countless generations, which he may be asked to discard within a few decades.”

“All the same, I want to hope that if not I and not my son, then perhaps at least my grandson will see this book fully printed in our homeland...”

“Not even 25 years have passed since most of us first saw Europe with our own eyes. Before, this was impossible because of the Iron Curtain. And now the impression is forming that this curtain is falling once again.”

“The Inter-Parliamentary Union estimates that there were about 5,500 women in parliament worldwide in spring 2002, representing 14.3% of all members, up from 9% in 1987. If growth at this level is maintained (0.36% per annum), a simple linear projection predicts that women parliamentarians will achieve parity with men at the turn of the twenty-second century.”

“At any time between now and the end of the century, hundreds of thousands — nay, millions — of men and women may well be confronted with problems of the kind here discussed.”