The Signature Itself

« Writers have been incorporating comic book characters into their pieces since the age of subway graffiti in NYC. Typically, characters were either self-created designs used to reflect phrases put up by writers, or appropriated renditions of popular cartoon characters like the Pink Panther or Donald Duck. Today's characters differ to a great extent from those executed by traditional writers, in that they are most often imagined creations, sometimes used to stand in for the signature itself. »

Anna Waclawek

Initiative

«A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.»

Banksy

Pain-Inflicting Troika Members

«Back in 2011 and again in the summer of 2012, a number of economists pleaded with the European Central Bank to intervene in sovereign bond markets, buying troubled nations’ debt to stop the “doom loop” of plunging bond prices and financial distress that was pushing the euro to the brink.The objection from austerians was always that this would create moral hazard: it would let countries off the hook, and lead them to slack off on their belt-tightening.

(...) the ECB did intervene (...)

(...) the people who ended up being left (temporarily) off the hook were the austerians themselves, who took the narrowing of spreads — which was the result of the ECB’s new activism — and took it as proof that austerity was working.

(...) 

The point is that this narrowing of spreads has nothing to do with austerity.  

(...)

Yet the Commission has chosen to claim credit for this narrowing of spreads — it is, after all, the only good news they have to show for three years of austerity — and claim that it would go away if there was any relaxation of the pain.

So as I said, there is some clear moral hazard here; the ECB’s intervention has let some people off the hook, and encouraged them to continue with bad policies. But the people in question aren’t spendthrift governments, they’re pain-inflicting troika members, who have been given license to keep on inflicting pain.»

Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize)

1% versus 99%

«Marx described in 1848 in The Communist Manifesto: "Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat." Thus, the differences in the social classes in capitalism, in both their needs from the system and what they get from it, lead to the Marxian view that the interests of Wall Street rarely coincide with the interests of Main Street.»

Charles Sackrey & Geoff Schneider

Move the Perception

«I really think that the prankster myth is really valuable. Throughout history, pranksters have been looking at fences and then pushing them aside. It’s about taking situations, and changing one thing, and then looking at it in another way. Through action, you can move the perception. It’s almost like a magic trick.»

Swoon

Cristão e comunista

«Embora Che Guevara não fosse cristão, eu tenho a certeza de que um autêntico comunista é um cristão, embora não o saiba, e um autêntico cristão é um comunista, embora não o queira.»

Frei Betto

Indo pela direita até ao cruzamento

Miguel Relvas saiu do governo.

Dalaiama entrou na Galiza.

Earth Will Survive, We Will Disappear

«Nature solve its problems. And if we are a problem nature will solve us as a problem. To be an environmental conservationist is really a question of self-preservation. We're really working to make sure that we will survive.
Earth will survive, but if we don't learn to live in harmony with this ecosystem then we will simply disappear.»

Paul Watson (founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and an early member of Greenpeace)

Exploitation

«(...) the ingredient that most sharply distinguishes the Marxist conceptualization of class from other traditions is the concept of "exploitation", and (...) an exploitation-centered concept of class provides theoretically powerful tools for studying a range of problems in contemporary society.»

Erik Olin Wright

Empowerment

«For the victims of marginalization, respect and positive identity are crucial. The significance of art's power lies in its ability to allow the silenced voices to proclaim "Look! We are here! We exist! Remember us!" Clearly, art is both powerful and a means of empowering.

In this artistic ability to empower, graffiti as an art form, maintains a symbolic cultural significance; a symbol of contemporary culture and the voice of the marginalized, graffiti is an expressive act that has deep meaning. In its medium, graffiti is resistance to public control of space. In the letters and words, graffiti is both a group and individual identity. In its vibrant color and vivid imagery, graffiti is a statement about the strength of diversity and a uniform system of symbolling.»

Bradley Bartolomeo (psychologist)

¡Que la crisis la paguen los banqueros!

«Algunos economistas defienden que un gran banco no puede caer porque caería la economía… Me niego a aceptar eso. La quiebra de un banco tiene consecuencias catastróficas para los accionistas del banco. Si se salvaran — como se tendrían que salvar —, a través del fondo de garantía de depósitos, los depósitos de la gente modesta que tiene el dinero en el banco… no pasaría nada. Los accionistas perderían su capital y se acabó. Igual que pierde usted su capital si pone una tienda de moda mañana y no consigue vender lo suficiente. Pero estamos hablando del dominio ideológico del capitalismo, que ha metido en la cabeza de la gente que no se puede permitir la quiebra de ningún banco.»

Rosa Villegas