Richard K Morgan's Altered Carbon [political is personal]

From the fictional writings of Quellcrist Falconer:

The personal, as everyone's so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here – it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide from under it with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it PERSONAL. Do as much damage as you can. GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS. That way, you stand a better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous makes the difference, the ONLY difference in their eyes, between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life and that IT'S NOTHING PERSONAL. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.

From page 184-185 of this copy of Altered Carbon.

When people tell me they aren't really "into" politics, that its boring... I've had to temper my own reaction. You don't vote because you don't care? That's what they [politicians, the establishment] want. So they can fuck you over as much as they want. Refuse to extend YOUR unemployment benefits, offer YOUR money to bail out Wall Street...

And then they dick around not repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It makes me sick to my stomach EVERY TIME I see this on the news. Like, this should be the easiest rights giving we've ever done! Ever! And its still not done. Health care got done, for God's sake!

Anyway. I've still got that page bookmarked, and I sort of want to put it on a card to hand to people when they tell me that they just don't follow politics.

[Amazon Affiliate. If you click from here to Amazon and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]