The Hidden History of Big Brother in America Quotes

“the rise to the presidency of serial rapist, wannabe fascist, and crooked businessman Donald Trump.”
― Thom Hartmann, The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy

“there are only two primary ways for a government to ensure stability: trust or fear. A government is short-lived when it loses or lacks its citizens’ trust unless it can replace trust with fear.”
― Thom Hartmann, The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy

“While the English law that the colonies operated under specified that the bond status of a father determined the status of his child, as more and more Virginia farm, factory, and plantation owners fathered “mulatto” children by raping enslaved African women, in 1662 Virginia changed the law to specify the mother’s status as defining that of her child.”
― Thom Hartmann, The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy

“Big Brother–style social control—the control of behavior and ultimately even thought and belief—has a history as long as human memory. From The Epic of Gilgamesh to the Bible to the early American colonies to today, surveillance and the threat of violence have been its principal instruments.”
― Thom Hartmann, The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy