"Free Speech is the right to yell 'Theater!' in a crowded fire." -Abbie Hoffman "So how do people 'do democracy'? They do it by acting out the roles they always dreamed of playing." -Abbie Hoffman "The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it." -Abbie Hoffman "Avoid all needle drugs. The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon." -Abbie Hoffman 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 of consciousness is an empty high without a revolution in the distribution of power. We are not interested in the greening of Amerika except for the grass that will cover its grave. -Abbie Hoffman You know that being on the side of the angels, being right, isn't enough. To succeed you also have to work very hard with lots of cooperation from those around you. You have to have your wits about you continuously, show up on time, and follow through. -Abbie Hoffman Murder in a uniform is heroic, in a costume it is a crime. False advertisements win awards, forgers end up in jail. Inflated prices guarantee large profits while shoplifters are punished. Politicians conspire to create police riots and the victims are convicted in the courts. Students are gunned down and then indicted by suburban grand juries as the trouble-makers. A modern, highly mechanized army travels 9,000 miles to commit genocide against a small nation of great vision and then accuses its people of aggression. Slumlords allow rats to maim children and then complain of violence in the streets. Everything is topsy-turvy. ... Abbie Hoffman We debate which "ism" is more important than which other "ism," and I agree that all the isms lead to schisms which lead to wasms. We need a new language as we enter the next century. -Abbie Hoffman The correct stance, especially now in these times, is one foot in the street - the foot of courage, that gets off the curbstone of indifference - and one foot in the system - the intelligent foot, the one that learns how to develop strategies, to build coalitions, to negotiate differences, to raise money, to do mailing lists, to make use of the electronic media. You need that foot, too. The brave foot goes out into the street to strike out against the enculturation process that says: "Stay indoors," "Don't go out in the street," "There's crime in the street," "It's bad in the street," "You lose your job in the street," "You'll be homeless," "It's terrible," '.'Yecch." Civil disobedience - (I spent my summer vacation chained to a fence) - can be a necessary act of courage, but it doesn't take a hell of a lot of brains. -Abbie Hoffman I have never seen a national issue won that wasn't based on grassroots organizing and support. On the other hand, I have never ever seen a local issue won that didn't rely on outside support and outside agitators. -Abbie Hoffman Above all, what you have as young people that's vitally needed to make social change, is impatience. You want it to happen now. There have to be enough people that say, "We want it now, in our lifetime. " We want to see apartheid in South Africa come down right now. We want to see the war in Central America stop right now. We want the CIA off our campus right now. We want an end to sexual harassment in our communities right now…. Be adventurists in the sense of being bold and daring. Be opportunists and seize this opportunity, this moment in history, to go out and save our country. It's your turn now. -Abbie Hoffman 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. -Abbie Hoffman "Peace is a very complicated concept. When the lion gobbles up the lamb and wipes his lips, then there's peace. Well, I ain't for that peace at all." -Abbie Hoffman "Wouldn't you want to be indicted by the govenment for a high crime? It's a great thrill. It's an honor. It's a compliment. It's fun. I'm enjoying every minute of it!" -Abbie Hoffman "Life actors never rehearse and need no script. A life actor uses only what is available, nothing more, nothing less." -Abbie Hoffman "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." -Abbie Hoffman "Once you get the right image the details aren't that important." -Abbie Hoffman "We are here to make a better world. No amount of rationalization or blaming can preempt the moment of choice each of us brings to our situation here on this planet. The lesson of the '60s is that people who cared enough to do right could change history. We didn't end racism but we ended legal segregation. We ended the idea that you could send half-a-million soldiers around the world to fight a war that people do not support. We ended the idea that women are second-class citizens. We made the environment an issue that couldn't be avoided. The big battles that we won cannot be reversed. We were young, self-righteous, reckless, hypocritical, brave, silly, headstrong and scared half to death. And we were right." -Abbie Hoffman "It's embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller's List." -Abbie Hoffman "I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars." -Abbie Hoffman http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/30/wto.04/index.html