It must not be supposed that the officials in charge of education desire the young to become educated. On the contrary, their problem is to impart information without imparting intelligence. Education should have two objects: first, to give definite knowledge—reading and writing, languages and mathematics, and so on; secondly, to create those mental habits which will enable people to acquire knowledge and form sound judgments for themselves. The first of these we may call information, the second intelligence. The utility of information is admitted practically as well as theoretically; without a literate population a modern State is impossible. But the utility of intelligence is admitted only theoretically, not practically; it is not desired that ordinary people should think for themselves, because it is felt that people who think for themselves are awkward to manage and cause administrative difficulties. Only the guardians, in Plato’s language, are to think; the rest are to obey, or to follow leaders like a herd of sheep. This doctrine, often unconsciously, has survived the introduction of political democracy, and has radically vitiated all national systems of education.

—Bertrand Russell, Free Thought and Political Propaganda, Conway Memorial Lecture delivered on March 24, 1922.

Early on a weekday morning the graveyard was deserted. A Turkish man my age and I were pleasantly surprised to find we were not alone. I lit my candle next to the fresh flowers, we exchanged stories, agreed the world is in difficult straits. „She was a reliable fighter“, he said, and I of course agreed. I kept thinking about his words afterwards – I mean really, in the end what more could you want anyone to say about you?

Die Zeit:

Sahra Wagenknecht hat das Vorgehen von Israels Premier Netanjahu in Rafah als Kriegsverbrechen verurteilt. Der Ampelkoalition warf sie vor, dies direkt zu unterstützen.

Deutsche Linkspolitikerin und BSW-Vorsitzende Sahra Wagenknecht © John Macdougall/​AFP/​Getty Images

Israels Regierung führe einen „blutigen Rachefeldzug in Gaza, der mit legitimer Selbstverteidigung schon lange nichts mehr zu tun hat“, sagte Wagenknecht.

[Peter] Reddaway has emphasized that modern Russian political life cannot be understood without reference to „political technology,“ which represents an extreme form of political consultancy involving manipulation of individuals and large-scale deception. Since, Reddaway explained, at the core of any „political technologist’s“ plan, there lies a conspiracy, any good analyst of Russian politics needs to be a conspiracy theorist as well. Conspiracy theorists, he noted, are usually mocked in countries with transparent political systems. But a system becomes more prone to conspiracies if the ruler remains in power for a long time and controls large parts of its wealth. Russia and Iran, he observed, would be two examples of present-day countries with conspiratorial politics.

—John B. Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings of September 1999, (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2012), 17-18.

For me personally the bombings of the apartment houses are a key moment in our most recent history. Because if those bombings were not accidental in the sequence of the events which followed; if, to put it bluntly, they were the work of our [Russian] authorities—then everything will once and forever take its proper place. Then there is not and cannot be an iota of illusion about [the nature of] those who rule us. Then those people are not minor or large-scale swindlers and thieves. Then they are among the most terrible of criminals.

—Anton Orekh, in John B. Dunlop, The Moscow Bombings of September 1999, (Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2012), 7.

Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014

Russia has a sprawling edifice of institutions held together by an understanding of the general line that has been laid down by Putin in consultation with the rest of the ruling cabal.

—Robert Service, Kremlin Winter, (London: Picador, 2019), 81.

And Service’s is one of the better volumes on Putin. How are western readers to understand the world when this is the language with which they are spoon-fed?