Abbott „Abbie“ Hoffman war ein Polit- und Sozial-Aktivist in den Vereinigten Staaten. Er war Mitgründer der Youth International Party und später ein Flüchtling vor dem Gesetz, der aufgrund eines Urteils wegen angeblichen Kokainhandels unter einem Decknamen lebte. Er wurde in den 1960er Jahren bekannt und blieb ein Symbol der Jugendrebellion dieser Dekade. Wikipedia
“All you kiddies remember to lay off the needle drugs”
"God Bless America — Shoot Nixon", on the spoken word album Wake Up America! (1970).
Kontext: All you kiddies remember to lay off the needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.
“Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.”
Quelle: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), p. 64.
Kontext: My critique of democracy begins and ends with this point. Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.
Closing words from his last speech, Vanderbilt University (April 1989).
Kontext: In the nineteen-sixties, apartheid was driven out of America. Legal segregation — Jim Crow — ended. We didn't end racism, but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you can send a million soldiers ten thousand miles away to fight in a war that people do not support. We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens. Now, it doesn't matter who sits in the Oval Office. But the big battles that were won in that period of civil war and strife you cannot reverse. We were young, we were reckless, arrogant, silly, headstrong … and we were right! I regret nothing!
“TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE”
Quelle: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 184.
Quelle: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 187.
“STRUCTURE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CONTENT IN THE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION.”
Quelle: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 109, quoting the famous statement of Marshall McLuhan.
Kontext: STRUCTURE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN CONTENT IN THE TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION. It is the same as saying "the medium is the message."
“Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life.”
The "Steal Yourself Rich" Book (1971), p. v.
Kontext: Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them.
Closing words from his last speech, Vanderbilt University (April 1989).
Kontext: In the nineteen-sixties, apartheid was driven out of America. Legal segregation — Jim Crow — ended. We didn't end racism, but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you can send a million soldiers ten thousand miles away to fight in a war that people do not support. We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens. Now, it doesn't matter who sits in the Oval Office. But the big battles that were won in that period of civil war and strife you cannot reverse. We were young, we were reckless, arrogant, silly, headstrong … and we were right! I regret nothing!
“The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.”
Quelle: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 188.
“Free speech is the right to shout "Theater!" in a crowded fire.”
Quelle: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), p. 214.
Quelle: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), p. 297.
Kontext: There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning. I think I've learned that lesson twice now. The essence of successful revolution, be it for an individual, a community of individuals, or a nation, depends on accepting that challenge.
Quelle: Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), p. 297.
Kontext: Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit. When all today's isms have become yesterday's ancient philosophy, there will still be reactionaries and there will still be revolutionaries. No amount of rationalization can avoid the moment of choice each of us brings to our situation here on the planet. I still believe in the fundamental injustice of the profit system and do not accept the proposition there will be rich and poor for all eternity.
Tikkun (July-August 1989); also quoted in The Best Liberal Quotes Ever : Why the Left is Right (2004) by William P. Martin, p. 51.
“The first duty of a revolutionist is to get away with it.”
Spoken to police immediately prior to his arrest at the Lincoln Hotel Restaurant in Chicago (August 1968), quoting himself in "Creating the Perfect Mess" (1 September 1968) in Revolution for the Hell of It (1968); also quoted in Abbie Hoffman : American Rebel (1992) by Marty Jezer.
Quelle: Steal This Book
Kontext: The first duty of a revolutionist is to get away with it. The second duty is to eat breakfast. I ain't going.
Introduction, p. v.
Quelle: Steal This Book (1971)
Kontext: Your body is just one in a mass of cuddly humanity. Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them. The duty of a revolutionary is to make love and that means staying alive and free. That doesn't allow for cop-outs. Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps. A revolution in consciousness is an empty high without a revolution in the distribution of power.
"Chicago", on the spoken word album Wake Up America! (1970).
“Nostalgia is a form of depression both for a society and an individual.”
Bye-Bye Sixties, Hollywood-Style, Square Dancing in the Ice Age (1982).
"Reefer Madness" in The Nation (21 November 1987) http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/Nation_Hoffman_112187.html.
“LONG LIVE THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION!”
Down on Me and Janis Joplin
Woodstock Nation (1969)
Quelle: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 135.
“I only regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country.”
Post-trial statement (modeled after a quote by American revolutionary Nathan Hale), after being declared guilty of flag desecration for wearing a shirt that resembled an American flag (1968), quoted in "The Trial of Abbie Hoffman's Shirt" in The Huffington Post (8 June 2005) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-krassner/the-trial-of-abbie-hoffma_b_2334.html.
“The best way to educate oneself is to become part of the revolution.”
Quelle: Revolution for the Hell of It (1968), p. 184.
“I was probably the only revolutionary referred to as cute.”
Cited as being in Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980) p. 222, this does not appear accessible for verification in online scans of this book. So someone needs to go to the library.
Disputed
