He was perfectly astonished with the historical account gave him of our affairs during the last century; protesting “it was only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.”

Camp Concentration is a 1968 science fiction novel by American author Thomas M. Disch.

If persuasion were so easy a task, perhaps the few voices of righteousness might hope to have some effect. But it is a fact that not I nor anyone I've known on the Committee for a Unilateral Peace has ever convinced anyone of the folly and immorality of this war who was not at heart aleady of like mind, who needed no convincing but only our reassurance.

And do you not also think, as I do, that the harsh feeling which the many entertain towards philosophy originates in the pretenders, who rush in uninvited, and are always abusing them, and finding fault with them, who make persons instead of things the theme of their conversation? and nothing can be more unbecoming in philosophers than this. - Book VI

It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison, and yet not free - to be under no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national state, or of some private interest within the nation, wants him to think, feel and act. The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective.

Aldous Huxley, 1958

To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is it's justice; that is it's morality.

Late in the night on November 7, 2000 the US election had come down to a tight race over Florida and its 25 electoral votes. Both Al Gore and George W. Bush were within 25 electoral votes of the necessary count to win the presidency.

In Volusia County's 216th precinct of 585 registered voters, 412 of those registered voters had voted. The 412 voters also voted 2,813 times for Bush and unvoted 16,022 times for Gore. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader had an even larger negative vote.

The facts and story of Al Gore's minus 16,022 vote anomaly in Volusia County are the subject of the controversial 2006 HBO documentary Hacking Democracy.

The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence - on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice.

It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no secret is revealed.

...That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solan decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. Confident that with your help, man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

Network is a 1976 American film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty. The following is transcribed from the movie:

Last night, I was awakened from a fitful sleep shortly after 2:00 in the morning by a shrill, sibilant, faceless voice. I couldn't make it out at first in the dark bedroom and I said, 'I'm sorry, you will have to talk a little louder.'

And the voice said to me: 'I want you to tell the people the truth not an easy thing to do because the people don't want to know the truth.'

And I said, 'You're kidding. What the hell should I know about the truth?'

But the voice said to me, 'Don't worry about the truth. I will put the words in your mouth.'

And I said, 'What is this, the Burning Bush? For God's sake, I'm not Moses.'

And the voice said to me, 'And I'm not God, what has that got to do with it?'

And the voice said to me, 'We're not talking about eternal truth or absolute truth or ultimate truth. We're talking about impermanent, transient, human truth. I don't expect you people to be capable of truth but God damn it, at least you're capable of self-preservation!'

And I said, 'Why Me?'

And the voice said, 'Because you're on television, dummy. You have 40 million Americans listening to you and after this show you could have 50 million. For Pete's sake, I'm not asking you to walk the land in sackcloth and ashes preaching the Armageddon. You're on TV, man.'

So I thought about it for a moment and then I said, 'Okay.'