I love these quotes. But who is Dresden James?
"A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn’t the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn’t flat. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."
"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves."
Dresden James
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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How odd. I spent 20 minutes or so trying to track this down. Maybe the name was reversed? Maybe the quote is properly attributed to someone else? No dice, I can't dig anything up.
There are great quotes that everyone uses to make their points. I've seen it used to bolster alternative medicine claims, religious arguments, both left and right political views. Everyone likes to use these lines...and yet we don't even know where they came from. People just keep copying the same quote and the same name over and over.
My son's name is Dresden James, but he's only 7 months old so the quotes aren't his. I like his namesake's point of view though!
Did you do that by design? These quotes remind me that we are happily on the road to living out "1984" by George Orwell.
Yes and no. It was a name on the list of names we liked. Once we searched the name and found the quotes it sealed the deal.
I had not heard of the movie "1984" but I did just read a summary of the movie, and will pass the info. on to my Husband as it sounds RIGHT up his alley. Thank you. Hubby also thinks that the quotes are directly related to a one world government and a "new world order", but I think the part of the quote that reads "When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic" can be applied to so many situations. For me (at the moment) I think of routine infant circumcision. How the "benefits" were sold to the masses to a point that parents just do it without even researching a surgery to be preformed on their newborn son! Also, I think it applies to religion well! As an atheist, living in the south, you should see the reaction I get when someone finds out I don't believe in god. I'd say they do think I'm a raving lunatic!
I really wish I could find out more about the quotes.
Wow, that will be an interesting story for Dresden to hear as he is growing up.
No doubt they refer to a one world government. You might be familiar with a couple of documentaries that are available on the net, Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist Addendum. They kind of blow my mind.
I think they also refer to anything that is systematized to the point that we don't know why we do something.
Religion certainly fits that list. I was part of organized religion for 25+ years and am a little shocked by how much I had been programmed by it.
Some of my friends now think that I have 2 heads and a tail because I don't fit in with what they are comfortable with. And yet they don't see how much they reject others in the name of their particular group.
I use these quotes to remind myself not to follow any particular group mindset. Reading things I don't agree with, keeps me challenged and aware that whatever I believe at the moment is subject to change in the future.
Some people become so rigid in their beliefs that they can't hear new ideas and they usually think everyone else should believe the same way as well.
Staying true to what we believe and yet staying open to new ideas is the only way to not fall into the trap that Dresden James was talking about.
If you ever find out more about this guy, let me know.
I came across this quote in a John Le Carre novel, "Absolute Friends", written in 2004. As prelim to the quote,one of the two main characters, Sasha, asks of the other main character, Mundy, "You know the American thinker Dresden James?"
Do you think it's possible the quote originated with Le Carre himself? And that this is another of his little ironic jokes he likes to play on his readers? He has a British intelligence background and is famous for researching and evaluating the veracity of his data. It seems highly unlikely that he would attribute a quote to a "source" who was unverified.
In any case it's a great quote and unfortunately, very apropos of the masses of our present society.
The Le Carre is the best answer I've heard to this little riddle.
It really is one of my favorite observations of the masses not just in our present time, but perhaps in any time. I really don't like it when I realize more often than I care to admit that my thinking is more in tune with the masses.
It can't have originated with le Carré. I just finished reading Absolute Friends. He only used part of the first of the two quotes provided on this page.
It looks like it might be Donald James Wheal (1931-2008), a British novelist and scriptwriter. He wrote under different pseudonyms, among them Donald James and Thomas Dresden.
Who is Dresden James?
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Answer:
It is Donald James Wheal (1931-2008), a British novelist and scriptwriter. He wrote under different pseudonyms, among them Donald James and Thomas Dresden.
First answer by ID1559945205. Last edit by ID1559945205. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].
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