Bludgeon Quotes

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. (Noam Chomsky)
We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests. View quote
Henry Miller
If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. View quote
H. P. Lovecraft
[The Kellog Pact is] a mighty moral bulwark against war - and we must never underestimate the effectiveness of moral bulwarks with no bayonet nor bludgeon behind them. The entry of the United States into the Permanent Court of International Justice, the growing confidence in the court, and the increase in the number of nations who have signed the Optional Clause mark definite and, I believe, irrevocable steps in the displacement of military power by judicial process in the settlement of international disputes. Public servants like us will fail in our duty if we do not diminish military power in proportion to the increase of political security...I dare affirm that, in the naval programme of the leading naval powers, there is a margin between real security needs and actual or projected strength, and the world expects this Conference to eliminate that margin. View quote
Ramsay MacDonald
As to the power which money gives, it is that of brute force, it is the power of the bludgeon and the bayonet, and of the bribed press, tongue and pen. View quote
William Cobbett
The power which money gives is that of brute force; it is the power of the bludgeon and the bayonet. View quote
William Cobbett
Harold Laswell ... explained a couple of years after this in the early 1930s that we should not succumb to what he called democratic dogmatisms about men being the best judges of their own interests.... In what's nowadays called a totalitarian state, military state or something, it's easy. You just hold a bludgeon over their heads, but as societies become more free and democratic you lose that capacity and therefore you have to turn to the techniques of propaganda. The logic is clear-propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.... View quote
Noam Chomsky