Barrington Moore Jr., via Noam Chomsky’s “Knowledge and Power: Intellectuals and the Welfare-Warfare State”

“You may protest in words as much as you like. There is but one condition attached to the freedom we would very much like to encourage: your protests may be as loud as possible as long as they remain ineffective. Though we regret your sufferings very much and would like to do something about them-indeed we have studied them very carefully and have already spoken to your rulers and immediate superiors about these matters—any attempt by you to remove your oppressors by force is a threat to civilized society and the democratic process. Such threats we cannot and shall not tolerate… As you resort to force, we will, if need be, wipe you from the face of the earth by the measured response that rains down flame from the skies.”