"There are only one million of them, the truly evil men, in the whole world. The very rich and the very powerful, whose decisions really count - they only number one million.
"The stupid men, who number 10 million, are the soldiers and policemen who enforce the rule of the evil men. They are the standing armies of 12 key countries, and the police forces of those and twenty more. In total, there are only 10 million of them with any real power or consequence. They are often brave, I'm sure, but they are stupid, too, because they give their lives for governments and causes that use their flesh and blood as mere chest pieces. Those governments always betray them or let them down or abandon them, in the long run. Nations neglect no men more shamefully than the heroes of their wars.
"And the hundred million cowards, they are the bureaucrats and paper shufflers and pen pushers who permit the rule of evil men, and look the other way. They are the head of this department, and the secretary of that committee, and the president of the other association. They are managers, and officials, and mayors, and officers of the court. They always defend themselves by saying that they are just following orders, or just doing their job, and it's nothing personal, and if they don't do it, someone else surely will. They are the hundred million cowards who know what is going on, but say nothing, while they sign the paper that puts one man before a firing squad, or condemns one million men to the slower death of a famine.
"The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men, and a hundred million cowards. The rest of us, all six billion of us, do pretty much what we are told."
Abdul Ghani, SHANTARAM, by Gregory David RobertsA little extreme??? Nah, pretty spot on...
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