CrimethInc. Quotes & Sayings

Domination is a relationship, not a condition; it depends on the participation of both parties. Hierarchical power is not just the gun in the policeman's hand; it is just as much the obedience of the ones who act as if it is always pointed at them. It is not just the government and the executives and the armed forces; it extends through society from top to bottom, an interlocking web of control and compliance. Sometimes all it takes to be complicit in the oppression of millions is to die of natural causes. — CrimethInc.

Others found the implication odd that they could live their way forever- working and drinking and watching TV- and why they would want to. — CrimethInc.

There is no "wrong train. — CrimethInc.

Feeling that one has some leverage upon something, even by proxy or association, makes one a great deal more interested in it. — CrimethInc.

Accident - A statistical inevitability. Some nuclear power plants are built on fault lines, but ever mine, dam, oil rig, and waste dump is founded upon a tacit acceptance of the worst-case scenario. One a long enough timeline, everything that can go wrong will, however small the likelihood is from one day to the next. The responsible parties may wring their hands about the Fukushima meltdown - and the Gult of Mexico oil spill, and the Exxon Valdez, and Hurricane Katrina, and Chernobyl, and Haiti - but accident is no accident. — CrimethInc.

We left behind the other kids; their path-working, drinking, and being grown up- and rejected all that made them grumpy, uncreative and lifeless. We dumpstered, squatted, and shoplifted our lives back. Everything fell into place when we decided our lives were meant to be lived. Life serves the risk taker ... — CrimethInc.

At first, one only recognizes particular instances to be worth of critique; critique appears synonymous with rejection, implying deficiency in the object. Over time, one discovers that everything warrants critique. This can produce cynicism: nothing is above reproach, nothing is pure, therefore nothing has value. But followed through to its logical conclusion, this insight inspires a profound optimism: if everything can be critiqued, then no matter how bleak things are, there is always a way to improve them. Those who comprehend this can pass beyond the binary of approval and disapproval to identify the conflicting currents within any subject of inquiry. There are sides to take inside every position, as well as between them. — CrimethInc.

No one is more qualified than you are to decide how you live; no one should be able to vote on what you do with your time and your potential unless you invite them to. — CrimethInc.

Because I care about human beings, I want them to be free to do what is right for them. Isn't that more important than mere peace on earth? Isn't freedom, even dangerous freedom, preferable to the safest slavery, to peace bought with ignorance, cowardice, and submission? — CrimethInc.

We want ecstasy as a way of life, not a liver-poisoning alcoholiday from it. — CrimethInc.

Historically, the 'deadline' was the line around a prison beyond which prisoners were eligible for shooting. In keeping with shifts in the exercise of control, what one was delineated spatially over life is now enforced temporarily over labor. — CrimethInc.

Visit Arcata, I really do recommend it. Play the nearly impossible to find original Pac Man at the cafe, explore the HSU campus, see a two-dollar movie, buy a tofu dog from the vendor in Town Square, sleep on the rooftops, and if they ask you what time it is, there's only one correct answer
'4:20'! — CrimethInc.

Then life began, and since then we remember each dumpster, abandoned house, and foot-chase by retail security. At night, after running around, plotting and scheming, our checklist items all crossed out, we paused to think - 'What to do tomorrow?' and the answer was always, 'As we please ... — CrimethInc.

Life's most beautiful and inspiring moments occur at 3am, just prowling, looking for nothing but always finding something. — CrimethInc.

Nothing can replace the feel of the paper against your fingers, the ink soaked up by paper, the sensation of turning a page with the wind rustling your hair, or the deliberate and intricate presentation of images and text that you can only get in the real world, on real pages. And few things can be as torturous as sitting in front of a computer screen for hours on end. — CrimethInc.

If you are a warrior, the nature and scale of your enemies will determine the nature and scale of your actions. In this sense, it is even more important to choose your enemies more wisely than your friends. — CrimethInc.

One does not suffer nearly so much from one's inadequacies as from one's unused abilities. — CrimethInc.

What is common becomes sense, but what is sensible doesn't always become common. — CrimethInc.

The authorities don't grant concessions out of the kindness of their hearts; they simply concede the reality of what their subjects are strong enough to compel from them. If you want political leverage, don't beg for it, don't seek it through their channels - take power outside them. — CrimethInc.

Form your own autonomous group, answering to no power but your own, and chase down freedom for yourselves, if your representatives will not do if for you- since they cannot do it for you. — CrimethInc.

In the United States, people don't revolt in order to obtain freedom, but continue denying it to others. — CrimethInc.

Everything subtracted from the present is added to the future with interest. — CrimethInc.

Only by concealing our identities can we shed the masks we have to wear at school, at work, even at home - everywhere there is surveillance, policing, punishment - masks that are increasingly indistinguishable from ourselves. — CrimethInc.

And I thought
when you're a half-hour late, and your friends think you're in jail, it's probably a sign you steal too much. — CrimethInc.

Tomorrow will use you the way you use today. — CrimethInc.

Victory will not go to those who can inflict the most suffering, but to those who can survive the most. — CrimethInc.

Media is an assemblage of tools with which to expand an audience's conception of what "the world" is to such and extent that their own lives and capabilities seem utterly insignificant; a means of psychological warfare by which people are overloaded with information and desensitized to their own and others' suffering; the sum of all means by which human beings reduce the infinite complexity of reality to a dead-end maze of abstractions. — CrimethInc.

Only those prepared to go too far will learn how far they can go. — CrimethInc.

To see beauty is to learn the private language of meaning which is another's life - to recognize and relish what is. beauty must be defined as what we are, or else the concept itself is our enemy. why languish in the shadow of a standard we cannot personify, an ideal we cannot live? — CrimethInc.

Note: When reading dry political theory, such as the texts you will find on the following pages, it may be useful to apply the Exclamation Point Test from time to time, to determine if the material you are reading is actually relevant to your life. To apply this test, simply go through the text replacing all the punctuation marks at the ends of the sentences with exclamation points. If the results sound absurd when read aloud, then you know you're wasting your time. — CrimethInc.

There is no returning to the masses - once your forays into theory have borne you far enough away from them that you can perceive them and the benefits of being among them. the only return is through the process of disillusionment; one must cease to care about motivating the masses to be reunited with them. Likewise, there is no converting them - no matter how many people you come to join you at your outpost, from up close they will never look as impressive as the distant crowd. — CrimethInc.

Can we imagine a togetherness that isn't founded on gross generalizations, conceptualizing ourselves as unique individuals who still stand to gain from looking out for one another? Can we identify with each other rather than with categories or masters? — CrimethInc.

Whom one is speaking to - or which aspect of their character - fundamentally determines the meaning and consequences of an exhortation. 'Indulge Your Desires' comes across very differently on a billboard advertising SUVs than it does spray-painted across the broken windows of an SUV dealer. It follows that what you say is not nearly as important as how and when you say it. — CrimethInc.

Where do you want to go, my heart?" "Anywhere - anywhere, out of this world. — CrimethInc.

See you on the other side of the screen, if you make it, earnest cyberspace cadet. — CrimethInc.

That night was my first exposure to the life I was supposed to be living at my age. I dont know, I didn't get it. "You'll get a job, hate your life, and you'll want to drink too!"-they always say. — CrimethInc.

Gun Control: A measure to ensure that guns always point in one direction. — CrimethInc.

Anarchism is the revolutionary idea that no one is more qualified than you are to decide what your life will be. — CrimethInc.

Economy: As an adjective, cheap; As a noun, that which compels us to render ourselves as such. — CrimethInc.

Right and wrong are superstitions; your desires, however, are real. Those who cannot achieve their desires, or who despair of doing so, often compensate by constructing imaginary frameworks. For example, if you wish to live in a world in which no one exploits animals, it is moralism to judge those who eat meat immoral instead of setting about disabling the animal exploitation industry. People retreat into moralism as a sort of consolation prize, for it is easier to rule in the realm of good and evil, fictitious as it may be, than to come to terms with our limited leverage upon this world and yet persist in endeavoring to change it. — CrimethInc.

A truly radical resolution would be to embrace existence just as it is, as the only thing that matters, to proclaim that the world itself is heaven, made for our total enjoyment and fulfillment ... — CrimethInc.

I always secretly looked forward to nothing going as planned. That way, I wasn't limited by my imagination. That way, anything can, and always did, happen. — CrimethInc.

A day unemployed is like a bagel- even when it's bad, it's still pretty good ... — CrimethInc.