P.11 Distance, inaccessibility: the more remote the individual, the greater
the power of the abstract symbol over the physical body.
P.20 Tolstoy compared the leader to a ram fattened for slaughter. Fattened
on triumph, on the obedience of his subjects, on power and wealth, only to
be suddenly struck down by the same force that raised him.
P.30 War is back in fashion. Leaders who rattle sabres win elections, and
some of them follow through on their threats. In the last five years, global
military spending has increased by 34 per cent.
P.36 This explosion of violence corresponds to a pattern long observed by
military historians. There are phases in history when defensive techniques
progress more quickly than offensive techniques. During these periods, wars
become rarer because the cost of attacking is higher than the cost of
defending.
P.37 In the wake of the Second World War, and throughout the Cold War, the
nuclear deterrent made the cost of any large-scale attack prohibitive. But
the evolution of the geopolitical context and the progress of technology
brought an end to this period of relative calm:
P.53 The apogee of power coincides not so much with action as with reckless
action, which is the only kind that will shock people.
P.58 Which is why Bukele is now standing on the UN rostrum: ‘Some say we’ve
imprisoned thousands of people, but the truth is that we have liberated
millions. ...’
P.61 For him, Trump’s return to oiffice is proof that he was right all
along. And that all those who believed Trumpism was a passing phase, an
accident of history, were wrong.
The day after Trump’s victory, Bukele wrote on X: ‘No matter your political
preference or whether you like what happened or what’s yet to happen […] I’m
certain you don’t fully grasp the fork in human civilisation that began
yesterday.’ One month before this, the Republican candidate had given a
speech in Erie, Pennsylvania, in which he outlined a solution to the problem
of juvenile delinquency copied straight from the one used in El Salvador.
P.94 Trotsky’s stance was that the revolutionaries must ignore the existence
of Kerensky’s government. The key to the state was not its bureaucratic and
political organs — it wasn’t the Tauride Palace or the Mariinsky Palace or
the Winter Palace — but the technical infrastructure: the power stations,
the railways, the telephone and telegraph systems, the ports, the gas
holders, the aqueducts.