Jonathan Haidt ist assoziierter Professor für Positive Psychologie an der Universität von Virginia. 2001 hat er den Templeton Preis für Positive Psychologie bekommen, 2004 wurde er mit dem Virginia “Outstanding Faculty Award” ausgezeichnet.
Der Autor des Buchs The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
(Die Glückshypothese: Zeitgemäße Wahrheit angesichts althergebrachter Weisheit)
ist ein weltlich gesinnter Atheist, der altem Wissen großen Respekt entgegen bringt.

• Jonathan Haidt, Sozial- und Kulturpsychologe, Morality: 2012, Konferenz des New Yorker, Gastgeber Henry Finder, Diskussion über die Fünf Säulen der Moral, Video (engl.) Newyorker.com, 7. Mai 2007
  Haidt: It doesn't matter who is in the White House. Conservative, religious people are happier. Conservatives participate in denser, more binding structures.

• Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. H.H. 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso [LoC 570] (*1935) Tibetan monk, leader of religious officials of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism

• As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Abraham Lincoln [LOC 565] (1809-1865) assassinated 16th US President (1861-1865), abolisher of slavery

• The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil. Albert Einstein [LoC 499] (1879-1955) German-born US American theoretical physicist, developer of the theory of general relativity, Nobel Prize laureate

• I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils [capitalism], namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. Albert Einstein [LoC 499] (1879-1955) German-born US American theoretical physicist, developer of the theory of general relativity, Nobel Prize laureate, Monthly Review No. 1, Why Socialism, May 1949

• Legislators make the citizens good by forming habits in them, and this is the wish of every legislator, and those who do not effect it miss their mark, and it is in this that a good constitution differs from a bad one. Aristotle [LoC 498] (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher, physician, scientist, Nicomachean Ethics, book II

• [T]alking about Buddha's [political] orientation. In one of the variables Buddha [LoC 1000] was a staunch republican and in another variable he was a staunch democrat. minute 00:40
  Gautama Buddha was the ultimate republican in a sense because 100% of what happens to you is YOUR karma. minute 2:22
  Gautama Buddha extended rights even to the untouchables. [...] Buddha made everybody equal. That was a social revolution. You don't go f..cking with a caste system. minute 5:35
  Conservatives tend to put the cause of suffering on the interiors and liberals put the cause in the exterior. minute 2:56
  Time Magazine calls this now the interiorists and exteriorists. minute 2:08

• [...] until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, [...] cities will have no rest from evils, [...] nor, I think, will the human race. Plato [LoC 485] (427-347 BC) Ancient Greek pre-Christian philosopher, Republic 473c-d

• In politics what matters is not what the facts are – what matters is what people believe. Because people vote on the basis of what they believe and not on the basis of what the facts are. Thomas Sowell [LoC 480] (*1930) US American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, senior fellow of The Hoover Institution

• Civil disobedience: Passive (i.e. nonviolent) resistance to state power, usually involving mass defiance of unpopular laws or passive noncooperation with the authorities. Such methods can cause considerable difficulties for the state, which may be reluctant to use force against nonviolent protestors for fear of inflaming the situation or alienating world opinion. Civil disobedience was first developed as a concerted strategy by Gandhi, who pioneered his techniques of satyagraha first in South Africa and then in British India. Similar methods were subsequently adopted by supporters of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1950s, by Martin Luther King Jr. and the US civil rights movement of the 1960s, and by large crowds demanding reform in Czechoslovakia and other countries in the weeks before the collapse of communism in 1989. History suggests that such techniques are most likely to succeed when the regime is relatively liberal, when its authority is already crumbling, or when peaceful protests are backed by the implicit threat of mass violence should their demands not be met. The Macmillan Encyclopedia, 2001

• What patriarchy precludes is love between equals and therefore it precludes democracy founded on such love and the freedom of voice that encourages. […] The crossroads we are at is a crossroads between democracy and patriarchy. Video presentation by / Q&A with Carol Gilligan, Ph.D. webster.edu (*1936) US American professor of gender studies, psychologist, feminist, ethicist (community, relationships), Learning to See in the Dark: The Roots of Ethical Resistance, sponsored by The Dalai Lama Center For Ethics and Transformative Values MIT World, 1:10:34 duration, minute 44:40, recorded 24. April 2009

• Feminism [LoC 330] is one of the great liberation movements in human history. [Feminism] is the movement to liberate democracy [LoC 410] from patriarchy. It's not a problem of women and men, it's not a battle between women and men. It's seeing the effects of patriarchy on both women and men which are different. It's seeing how much the gender binary and gender hierarchy are fueling violence and a whole set of the ethical problems that are in front of us today, because in part by blunting our capacity to know what we know and to respond to what we know. Carol Gilligan, Ph.D. webster.edu (*1936) US American professor of gender studies, psychologist, feminist, ethicist (community, relationships), Learning to See in the Dark: The Roots of Ethical Resistance, sponsored by The Dalai Lama Center For Ethics and Transformative Values MIT World, 1:10:34 duration, minute 1:08:04, recorded 24. April 2009

• You cannot have a healthy global economy at the expense of local economies. [...] If any level is missing something, is not healthy, the whole of the system will be unhealthy, just as it would be in your body.
  Capitalism tends to sacrifice community to individual interests while communism tended to sacrifice individual interests to community. That's why it fell apart first. Neither is a sustainable system. It only works when we have healthy living economies that ensure selfinterest at all levels of holarchy.
  Crisis has always been opportunity for nature. In fact, nature doesn't do our either-ors. It's either this way or that way. Nature is both-and. It's competitive AND it's cooperative. It's profoundly conservative when things are working well and gets radically creative when they don't work. [...]
  Nature has been doing economics [resources, production, distribution, consumption, recycling] for billions of years and may have something to teach us about it. Unfortunately, our economic theory is based more on a kind of Darwinian psychology of selfinterest only in the form of selfishness. My gain at your expense, win-loose economics. We need to get over that and integrate the two sides of competition and cooperation keeping the creativity, even keeping friendly competition as long as it isn't hostile. We cannot separate ecology [interest of group, bigger whole] from economy [selfinterest] because they are both about how you run the household. What we really need now is ecosophy […] wisdom economics. Video key note presentation by Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D., Greek-American post-Darwinian creationist evolutionary biologist, pastist/futurist, promoter of anthropomorphism over mechanomorphism, business consultant, former UN consultant, sponsored by Ethical Fashion Symposium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2010, YouTube film, posted 7. June 2011, Nature's ecosophy, minute 13:45, 14:44 minutes duration, Nature's ecosophy, minute 0:00, 13:05 minutes duration

• The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual – for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost. Morgan Scott Peck (1936-2005) US American psychiatrist, psychotherapist, People of the Lie. The Hope for Healing Human Evil [LoC 450] Touchstone Press, 1st edition 1983, 2nd edition, December 1997

• Our best hope, both of a tolerable political harmony and of an inner peace, rests upon our ability to observe the limits of human freedom even while we responsibly exploit its creative possibilities. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) US American theologian, philosopher, The Structure of Nations and Empires, 1959

• Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead (1901-1978) US American cultural anthropologist, sociologist, biologist, popular writer, lecturer

• All modern democracies have a disease, which is that the democratic process tends to be captured by well-organized groups that are not representative of the general public. […] China is never going to be a global model. Our current Western system is really broken in some fundamental ways, but the Chinese system is not going to work either. It is a deeply unfair and immoral system where everything can be taken away from anyone in a split second Liberal democracy still really is the only game in town worldwide, in spite of all of its shortcomings. […] Liberal democracy still really is the only game in town worldwide, in spite of all of its shortcomings. Interview with Francis Fukuyama (*1952) US American political scientist, author of The End of History, Where Is the Uprising from the Left?, presented by Spiegel'', 2. February 2012

• Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish dramatist, politician, satirist, pacifist

• Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish dramatist, politician, satirist, pacifist

• People deserve the government they get. Henry Ford [LoC 380] (1863-1947) US American industrialist, founder of the Ford Motor Company

• Democracy is not a spectator sport. Brian Joel Bergquist (1958-1998) US American spokesman of human rights and civil rights

• A democratic civilisation will save itself only if it makes the language of image into a stimulus for critical reflection, not an invitation to hypnosis. Umberto Eco (*1932) Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic, novelist

• Democracy don't rule the world,
  You'd better get that in your head;
  This world is ruled by violence,
  But I guess that's better left unsaid. Bob Dylan (*1941) US American singer-songwriter, poet, painter, lyrics

• In my country we don't have democrats and republicans. We have remocrats and depublicans. Video lecture by Watts Wacker, US American futurist, Watts Wacker – World Renowned Futurist, YouTube film, presented by speakersspotlight, 7:16 minutes duration, posted 29. August 2009

• They tell us that we live in a great free republic; that our institutions are democratic; that we are a free and self-governing people. That is too much, even for a joke. [...] Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder [...] And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. Eugene Victor Debs, US American union leader

• (He) who wins by injustice may dominate the present day, but history will always judge him to be a shameful loser. Kim Dae-jung ['Nelson Mandela of Asia'] (1925-2009) South Korean president (1998-2003), Nobel Peace Prize recipient, 2000

• Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish US American philosopher, essayist, poet, novelist, literature critic, 'The Life of Reason'', 1905

• Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish US American philosopher, essayist, poet, novelist, literature critic, 'The Life of Reason'', 1905

• The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed – and hence clamorous to be led to safety – by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) US American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, critic of American life and culture

• Paradoxically enough, the release of initiative and enterprise made possible by popular self-government ultimately generates disintegrating forces from within. Again and again after freedom has brought opportunity and some degree of plenty, the competent become selfish, luxury-loving and complacent, the incompetent and the unfortunate grow envious and covetous, and all three groups turn aside from the hard road of freedom to worship the Golden Calf of economic security.
  Speech by Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., US American president of the Armstrong Cork Company, on Industrial Management in a Republic, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 250th meeting of the National Conference Board, 18. March 1943

• A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority (who vote) will vote for those candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse, with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship. Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800-1859) British poet, historian, Whig politician, letter to a US American friend, 23. May 1857

• But now global systems and integral meshworks are evolving out of corporate states and value communities. These interdependent systems require governance capable of integrating (not dominating) nations and communities over the entire spiral of interior and exterior development. What the world needs now is the first genuinely second-tier [ie, integral, holistic] form of political philosophy and governance. I believe, of course, that it will be an all-quadrant, all-level political theory and practice, deeply integral in its structures and patterns. This will in no way replace the US Constitution (or that of any other nation), but will simply situate it in global meshworks that facilitate mutual unfolding and enhancement – an integral and holonic politics.
  The question remains: exactly how will this be conceived, understood, embraced and practiced? What precise details, what actual specifics, where and how and when? This is the great and exhilirating call of global politics at the millenium. We are awaiting the new global Founding Fathers and Mothers who will frame an integral system of governance that will call us to our more encompassing future, that will act as a gentle pacer of transformation for the entire spiral of human development, honoring each and every wave as it unfolds, yet kindly inviting each and all to even greater depth. Ken Wilber [LoC 490] (*1949) US American transpersonal philosopher, consciousness researcher, thought leader of the 3rd millennium, A Theory of Everything. An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality, chapter Integral Governance, pg. 90, Shambhala, 1st edited edition, 16. October 2001

• Rankism is universal. It [...] is defined as abuse of the power inherent in rank, and it is human nature to abuse power – so long as we can get away with it. [...] Racism and the other isms are types of predation, [...] not written in our genes. [...] Rankism’s victims are likely to turn into perpetrators as soon as they can get away with it – to even the score, so to speak. This is why rooting out rankism is difficult.
  We learn; we evolve; we change. We will overcome rankism […] because dignitarian workplaces, schools, and societies are more productive and creative, more powerful and successful than are rankist workplaces, schools, and societies. Interview with Robert Fuller, Ph.D. dignityforall.org breakingranks.net (*1936) US American professor in physics, college president, dignity and rankism researcher, author, lecturer, breakingranks.net (*1936) US American professor in physics, college president, dignity and rankism researcher, Dignity's Apostle, presented by Intrepid Liberal Journal, blogspot by Robert Ellmann, Saturday, 20. May 2006

• No nation has yet built a dignitarian society. Doing so is democracy’s next step. Some Scandinavian societies seem to be moving in that direction. The bottom line of a dignitarian society is that everyone’s dignity is afforded equal protection. People can still hold unequal ranks, but in those ranks, dignity is equal from top to bottom. At a minimum, this means that regardless of rank, everyone is paid a living wage, has access to good health care and education. […] Even prisoners are treated with dignity, as they serve their terms. It is very hard for people who have grown up with libertarian values to get this distinction, but getting it is the next step for democracy. […] The guarantee in a dignitarian society is to dignity, not to a particular role or rank. Interview with Robert Fuller, Ph.D.dignityforall.org breakingranks.net (*1936) US American professor in physics, college president, dignity and rankism researcher, author, lecturer, breakingranks.net (*1936) US American professor in physics, college president, dignity and rankism researcher, Dignity's Apostle, presented by Intrepid Liberal Journal, blogspot by Robert Ellmann, Saturday, 20. May 2006

• Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. Benito Mussolini [Fallen LoC 50] (1883-1945) ['Il Duce'] (1883-1945) Italian key figure in the creation of fascism, leader of the National Fascist Party, 40th prime minister of Italy (1922-1943)

• If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. Joseph Goebbels [Fallen LoC 60] (1897-1945) most influential German politician, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany (1933-1945)

• At long intervals in human history it may occasionally happen that the practical politician and the political philosopher are one. The more intimate the union, the greater his political difficulties. Such a man does not labor to satisfy the demands that are obvious to every philistine; he reaches out toward ends that are comprehensible only to the few. Therefore his life is torn between hatred and love. The protest of the present generation, which does not understand him, wrestles with the recognition of posterity, for whom he also works. Adolf Hitler ['Führer und Reichskanzler'] [Fallen to LoC 45] (1889-1945) Austrian-German fascist leader of the Nazi Party during the Third Reich (1933-1945), written in the Landsberg prison, Bavaria, 1924

• Never before has a populist democracy [U.S.A.] attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties, even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization. Zbigniew Brzezinski (*1928) Polish US American political scientist, geostrategist, US National Security Advisor (1977-1981), The Grand Chessboard. American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives, pg. 35, Basic Books, 17. September 1998

• Two basic steps are thus required:
  1. first, to identify the geostrategically dynamic Eurasian states that have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distribution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely consequences of their seeking to attain them; [...]
  2. second, to formulate specific U.S. policies to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above. [...]
     To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are
  3. to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals,
  4. to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and
  5. to keep the barbarians from coming together.