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Rudolph Rummel Biography

Rudolph Joseph Rummel (October 21, 1932 – March 2, 2014) was professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He spent his career studying data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination. Rummel coined the term democide for murder by government (compare genocide), such as the Stalinist purges and Mao's Cultural Revolution.

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Rudolph Rummel Quotes

Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.

Absolute, Absolute Power, Absolutes, Kills, Power

We have a solution for war. It is to expand the sphere of liberty.

Expand, Liberty, Solution, Spheres, War

Political scientists almost everywhere have promoted the expansion of government power. They have functioned as the clergy of oppression.

Government, Political, Having Fun, Expansion, Functioned

Our knowledge and our ability to handle our problems progress through the open conflict of ideas, through the tests of phenomenological adequacy, inner consistency, and practical-moral consequences. Reason may err, but it can be moral. If we must err, let it be on the side of our creativity, our freedom, our betterment.

Consequences, Consistency, Creativity, Ideas, Inner, Tests

Nobody can be trusted with unlimited power. The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom.

Trust, People, Liberty, Power, Promoting

The more power a government has the more it can act arbitrarily according to the whims and desires of the elite, and the more it will make war on others and murder its foreign and domestic subjects. The more constrained the power of governments, the more power is diffused, checked, and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit democide.

According, Desire, Government, Power, War

Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth.

Earth, Liberty, Political, Power, Thing

[During the 20th century]. . . 170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners.

Bombed, Children, Killed, Liberty, Men, Tortured

To gauge the understanding and insight that metaphysics provides is to ask whether, in the final analysis, it helps us to cope with our world and harmonize our existence with nature, humanity, and ourselves, and leads to greater freedom and self-realization. Metaphysics is only the beginning. The end is human progress.

Helps, Humanity, Leads, Nature, Our World, Self

The way to virtually eliminate genocide and mass murder appears to be through restricting and checking power. This means to foster democratic freedom.

Democracy, Freedom, Mean, Power, Virtually, Way