World domination

Total domination of the world by 1958. ~ Peter Cook (in 1965)

World domination (also called global domination or world conquest) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single social or political authority holds the power over virtually all the inhabitants of the planet Earth.

Quotes

• Aldous Huxley was uncannily prophetic, a more astute guide to the future than any other 20th- century novelist. Even his casual asides have a surprising relevance to our own times. During the first world war, after America's entry, he warned: "I dread the inevitable acceleration of American world domination which will be the result of it all...Europe will no longer be Europe." His sentiment is widely echoed today, though too late for us to do anything about it. The worst fate for a prophet is for his predictions to come true, when everyone resents him for being so clear-eyed.
  • J. G. Ballard, "Prophet of Our Present". Review of Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual by Nicholas Murray. The Guardian, 13th April 2002.

• Since World War II, U.S. imperialism has stepped into the shoes of German, Japanese, and Italian fascism and has been trying to build a great American empire by dominating and enslaving the whole world. It is actively fostering Japanese and West German militarism as its chief accomplices in unleashing a world war. Like a vicious wolf, it is bullying and enslaving various peoples, plundering their wealth, encroaching upon their countries' sovereignty, and interfering in their internal affairs. It is the most rabid aggressor in human history and the most ferocious common enemy of the people of the world.
  • Lin Biao, minister of defense, People's Republic of China. Text released September 2, 1965; reported in Samuel B. Griffith, Peking and People's Wars (1966), p. 99.

• I'd vote for any party that would say "I won't allow people to throw garbage all over me." But none of the parties seem to be particularly interested. That's why I formed the World Domination League. It's a wonderful league, the World Domination League. The aims, as published in the manifesto, are total domination of the world by 1958. That's what we're planning to do. We've had to revise it. We're hoping to bring a new manifesto out with a more realistic target.
  • Peter Cook, in "The World Domination League" (1964).

• Total domination of the world by 1958.
  • Peter Cook, in the Manifesto of The World Domination League fictionally by E. L. Wisty and Spotty Muldoon (1965).

• The United States, delighting in her resources, feeling that she no longer had within herself sufficient scope for her energies, wishing to help those who were in misery or bondage the world over, yielded in her turn to that taste for intervention in which the instinct for domination cloaked itself.
  • Charles de Gaulle, The War Memoirs of Charles de Gaulle (1959), trans. Richard Howard, vol. 2, p. 88.

• The world is not enough
  But it is such a perfect place to start...my love
  And if you're strong enough
  Together we can take the world apart...my love.
  • The World Is Not Enough (song), by w:Garbage (band), opening theme of the film The World Is Not Enough, (1999).

• What did Doctor Doom really want? He wanted to rule the world. Now, think about this. You could walk across the street against a traffic light and get a summons for jaywalking, but you could walk up to a police officer and say "I want to rule the world," and there's nothing he can do about it, that is not a crime. Anybody can want to rule the world. So, even though he was the Fantastic Four's greatest menace, in my mind, he was never a criminal!
  • Stan Lee on Doctor Doom, Stan Lee's Amazing Marvel Universe (2006) by Roy Thomas.

• When our Statesmen are in conversation with the defeated enemy, some airy cherub should whisper to them from time to time this saying:
  Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland:
  Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island:
  Who rules the World-Island commands the World.
  • Sir Halford John Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction (1919), p. 186.

• World domination. The same old dream. Our asylums are full of people who think they're Naploeon. Or God.
  • Sean Connery as James Bond (film series) in Dr. No (film), screenplay by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood and Berkely Mather.

• For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
  • "Mark 8:36", The Holy Bible.

• Nothing has changed in Russia's policy…. Her methods, her tactics, her maneuvers may change, but the pole star—world domination—is immutable.
  • Karl Marx, speech delivered in London (January 22, 1867); in On the First International (vol. 3 of The Karl Marx Library), ed. and trans. Saul K. Padover (1972), p. 84.

• Red China and Russia are having their differences. But we cannot take too much comfort in the fact that what they are debating about is not how to beat each other but how to beat us. They are simply arguing about what kind of a shovel they should use to dig the grave of the United States.
  • Richard Nixon, speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C. (April 20, 1963); in "American Policy Abroad", Vital Speeches of the Day, June 1, 1963, p. 487.

• For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.
  • Sir Walter Raleigh, "A Discourse of the Invention of Ships, Anchors, Compass, &c.", The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt. (1829, reprinted 1965), vol. 8, p. 325.

• Pinky: Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?

Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!

• Tom Ruegger, Pinky and the Brain catchphrase (1995-1998)

• If world domination is to be obtained, the masses of little people must be brought on board with religion.
  • Buddy Selman, Because God Made a Promise to Abraham (2011), p. 262.

• There are now two great nations in the world which, starting from different points, seem to be advancing toward the same goal: the Russians and the Anglo-Americans. Both have grown in obscurity, and while the world's attention was occupied elsewhere, they have suddenly taken their place among the leading nations, making the world take note of their birth and of their greatness almost at the same instant. All other peoples seem to have nearly reached their natural limits and to need nothing but to preserve them; but these two are growing…. The American fights against natural obstacles; the Russian is at grips with men. The former combats the wilderness and barbarism; the latter, civilization with all its arms. America's conquests are made with the plowshare, Russia's with the sword. To attain their aims, the former relies on personal interest and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of individuals. The latter in a sense concentrates the whole power of society in one man. One has freedom as the principal means of action; the other has servitude. Their point of departure is different and their paths diverse; nevertheless, each seems called by some secret desire of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world.
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (originally published 1835–1840), ed. J. P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence (1969), vol. 1, part 2, Conclusion, final paragraphs, p. 412–13.