24+ Thomas Frank Quotes On Education, War And Writing

Thomas Frank is an American author and political analyst. He is best known for his 2004 book What's the Matter with Kansas?, which explored the rise of conservative populism in his home state. He is the founder and editor of the political magazine The Baffler and the author of several other books on politics and culture. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Thomas Frank on education, life, leadership.

Top 10 Thomas Frank Quotes

1. In the last James Bond movie, the villain was a culture captain, a tycoon of culture, a Murdoch figure. It's not as if people don't know what is going on.
2. Bad government is the natural product of rule by those who believe government is bad.
3. I was in a bad mood when I wrote that.
4. I think there's great potential for autonomy, but we have to remember that we live in a world where people may have free will but have not invented their circumstances.
5. What becomes fascinating is the way the culture industry doesn't deny it and doesn't try to mitigate it, but tries to sell its products as a way of liberating oneself.
6. These days, of course, the focus of talk about popular liberation through products is mostly associated with the Internet. I've been collecting computer ads and ads dealing with Internet industries.
7. Whereas liberals are thought to erupt self-righteously whenever they feel like it, conservatives believe that they themselves are never permitted to say what they really think.
8. In America, we no longer have an institutionalized, organized way of calling business to task - of taking them to account for what they've done - and this is especially true in the cultural realm.
9. The thing now is to seem concerned in a vaguely social-democratic way.
10. Conservatism is not a doctrine of contentment. Not a doctrine for the satisfied and the smug. It's a politics that's at war with the world.

Thomas Frank Quotes About People

A lot of populists after populism died just became socialists. At the beginning of the 20th century, socialism looked like it was going to take off. It didn't, of course, but a lot of people thought it was going to. — Thomas Frank

If your purpose is to understand the clique of people who dominate Washington today, the emails that really matter are the ones being slowly released by WikiLeaks from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta. — Thomas Frank

During the financial crisis and bailouts of 2008, it probably occurred to very few average people that we were entering a period of hardship for billionaires. — Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank Famous Quotes And Sayings

Corruption is uniquely reprehensible in a democracy because it violates the system's first principle, which we all learned back in the sunshiny days of elementary school: that the government exist to serve the public, not particular companies or individuals or even elected officials. — Thomas Frank

Vote to stand tall against terrorists ; receive Social Security privatization . Vote to strike a blow against elitism; receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our lifetimes , in which workers have been stripped of power and CEOs are rewarded in a manner beyond imagining. — Thomas Frank

Mounting a campaign against plutocracy makes as much sense to the typical Washington liberal as would circulating a petition against gravity. What our modernized liberal leaders offer is not confrontation but a kind of therapy for those flattened by the free-market hurricane: they counsel us to accept the inevitability of the situation. — Thomas Frank

One of the things I keep coming back to in my writing is that society doesn't work on this mirror principle - you don't have an exact replica on the left of what you have on the right. It just doesn't work that way. — Thomas Frank

I think the WikiLeaks releases furnish us with an opportunity to observe the upper reaches of the American status hierarchy in all its righteousness and majesty. High-achieving colleagues attempting to get jobs for their high-achieving children. Foundation executives doing fine and noble things. Prizes, of course, and high academic achievement. — Thomas Frank

Americans have known about mounting inequality and king-sized Wall Street bonuses for years. But we also had an entire genre of journalism dedicated to brushing the problem off. — Thomas Frank

There is much to dislike about President Obama's approach to the financial crisis. But opposition, it seems, will have to come from somewhere other than conservatism. The party out of power is also a party out of touch. — Thomas Frank

Apparently, there is no bad economic turn a conservative cannot do unto his buddy in the working class, as long as cultural solidarity has been cemented over a beer. — Thomas Frank

People are born in a certain place, and in a certain society. I don't mean to sound like a determinist, but to think we're entirely free to do whatever we want betrays a certain class perspective. For most people who have to work for a living, and work at jobs under conditions they may not like, it's just not simple when it comes to freedom. — Thomas Frank

Conservatives may believe that impoverished borrowers destroyed Wall Street. But we liberals will not fool ourselves that stupid bankers sank conservatism for good. — Thomas Frank

This aesthetic quality, then, is what politics is all about. It's authenticity that separates winners from losers, good politics from bad, and he-man leader-types from consultant-directed puppet-boys. — Thomas Frank

Life Lessons by Thomas Frank

1. Thomas Frank's work emphasizes the importance of understanding the power of economic and political forces in our lives. He encourages us to think critically about the decisions we make and the consequences they have on our lives and our society.
2. Through his writings, Thomas Frank encourages us to think about how our choices can shape the world around us and how we can work together to create a better future.
3. He also reminds us that we must remain vigilant and challenge the status quo in order to create a more equitable society for all.