Puneet

“It is generally supposed that governments strengthen their forces only to defend the state from other states, in oblivion of the fact that armies are necessary, before all things, for the defense of governments from their own oppressed and enslaved subjects.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You

“Bureaucracy is a construction by which a person is conveniently separated from the consequences of his or her actions.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

“complex systems do not have obvious one-dimensional cause-and-effect mechanisms, and that under opacity, you do not mess with such a system.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

“The only definition of rationality that I’ve found that is practically, empirically, and mathematically rigorous is the following: what is rational is that which allows for survival. Unlike modern theories by psychosophasters, it maps to the classical way of thinking. Anything that hinders one’s survival at an individual, collective, tribal, or general level is, to me, irrational.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life