“People are fooled into believing that they are powerful when they are
members of a powerful state, or when they are soldiers wielding
powerful weapons or when they have real or imagined connections to
people in powerful positions. Powerless boys in uniform feel powerful
when they think of the empire they represent; powerless masses imagine
themselves powerful when they cheer the dictator who suppresses them;
powerless bootlickers feel powerful when they think of the mighty
personage whose boots they lick. But democracy doesn’t meaning
‘feeling’ powerful. It means holding real power.” – C. Douglas Lummis, Radical Democracy
by way of wood s lot and Wealth Bondage.