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The Age of Reason has turned out to be the Age of Structure a time when, in the absence of purpose, the drive for power as a value in itself has become the principal indicator of social approval. And the winning of power has become the measure of social merit.

John Ralston Saul

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John Ralston Saul
Age: 77
Born: 1947
Born: June 19
Author
Columnist
Investment Banker
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Politician
Writer
Ottawa (Ontario)
John Ralston Saul
John Saul
Reason
Value
Principal
Time
Winning
Approval
Age
Merit
Purpose
Measure
Values
Absence
Social
Drive
Become
Turned
Indicator
Power
Structure
Indicators

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Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong.
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The void in our society has been produced by the absence of values... we have no widespread belief in the value of participation. The rational system has made us fear standing out in any serious way.
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Democracy is the only system capable of reflecting the humanist premise of equilibrium or balance. The key to its secret is the involvement of the citizen.
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We must discover how to ask simple questions of ourselves.
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It is the considered opinion of most members of our rational élites that, in any given difference of opinion with reality, reality is wrong.
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The faithful witness, like...Socrates, Voltaire, and Swift and Christ himself, is at his best when he is questioning and clarifying and avoiding the specialists obsession with solution. He betrays society when he is silent...He is true to himself and to people when his clarity causes disquiet.
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In a society of ideological believers, nothing is more ridiculous than the individual who doubts and does not conform.
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McDonald's is the ultimate symbol of passive conformity.
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Humanism: an exaltation of freedom, but one limited by our need to exercise it as an integral part of nature and society.
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Freedom - an occupied space which must be reoccupied every day.
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Dictionary: Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order.
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World class is a phrase used by provincial cities and second-rate entertainment events, as well as a wide variety of insecure individuals, to assert that they are not provincial or second-rate, thereby confirming that they are.
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Happy Hour: a depressing comment on the rest of the day and a victory for the most limited Dionysian view of human nature.
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An individual who stands out, or disagrees or takes risks is a danger to such systems and is effortlessly and, unconsciously sidelined.
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Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created
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There is something silly about grown men and women striving to reduce their vision of themselves and of civilization to bean counting.
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In all earlier civilizations, it should be remembered, commerce was treated as a narrow activity and by no means the senior sector in society.
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The most powerful force possessed by the individual citizen is her own government. ... Government is the only organized mechanism that makes possible that level of shared disinterest known as the public good.
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The recession is over. This phrase has been used twice a year since 1973 by government leaders throughout the West. Its meaning is unclear. See: Depression.
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