888 – Roger Ebert on the 1950s from Pleasantville Review

“Nothing creates fascists like the threat of freedom. Pleasantville [(1998)] is the kind of parable that encourages us to re-evaluate the good old days and take a fresh look at the new world we so easily dismiss as decadent. Yes, we have more problems. But also more solutions, more opportunities and more freedom. I grew up in the ’50s. … My house had a picket fence, and dinner was always on the table at a quarter to six, but things were wrong that I didn’t even know the words for.”

–Roger Ebert [See Source Notes for full context]

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594 – “Fascism is cured by reading, and racism is cured by traveling.”

–Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo [Attributed]

442 – Simple Truths Message

“Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.
The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.”

–Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States of America