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The Legacy of Noam Chomsky →
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Noam Chomsky turns eighty-four today, more than a half century after he exploded onto the scene of linguistics, in in the late nineteen-fifties, as a young professor at M.I.T.
Read "Manufacturing Consent" Now →
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(Source: reddit.com)
The existence of flat earthers does not change the fact that, uncontroversially, the earth is not flat. Similarly, it is uncontroversial that Stalin and Hitler were responsible for horrendous crimes, though loyalists deny it. All of this should, again, be too obvious for comment, and would be, except in an atmosphere of hysteria so extreme that it blocks rational thought.
Similarly, it is uncontroversial that Bush and associates did commit the “supreme international crime” — the crime of aggression. That crime was defined clearly enough by Justice Robert Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States at Nuremberg. An “aggressor,” Jackson proposed to the Tribunal in his opening statement, is a state that is the first to commit such actions as “[i]nvasion of its armed forces, with or without a declaration of war, of the territory of another State ….” No one, even the most extreme supporter of the aggression, denies that Bush and associates did just that.
(Source: alternet.org)
"In parallel, the cost of elections skyrocketed, driving both parties even deeper into corporate pockets. What remains of political democracy has been undermined further as both parties have turned to auctioning congressional leadership positions. Political economist Thomas Ferguson observes that “uniquely among legislatures in the developed world, U.S. congressional parties now post prices for key slots in the lawmaking process.” The legislators who fund the party get the posts, virtually compelling them to become servants of private capital even beyond the norm. The result, Ferguson continues, is that debates “rely heavily on the endless repetition of a handful of slogans that have been battle tested for their appeal to national investor blocs and interest groups that the leadership relies on for resources."
Noam Chomsky, American Decline: Causes and Consequences (via rooftopsedge)
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#Noam
#America
#Economic decline
#Political decline
"The phrase “security” does not refer to the security of the population; rather to the security of the “principle architects of policy”—in [Adam] Smith’s day “merchants and manufacturers,” in ours megacorporations and great financial institutions, nourished by the states they largely dominate."
Noam Chomsky, Hopes and Prospects (via theworldofsleepers)
#chomsky
#noam chomsky
#noam
#security
#population
#policy
#adam smith
#corporation
#megacorporation
#finance
#financial institution
#state
#domination
#hopes and prospects
"…It is important not to be intimidated by hysterical ranting and lies and to keep as closely as one can to the course of truth and honesty and concern for the human consequences of what one does, or fails to do. All truisms, but worth bearing in mind."
Noam Chomsky, 9-11: Was there and alternative? (via theworldofsleepers)
#chomsky
#9-11
#Noam
#honesty
#humanity
#intimidation
#lies
#quote
#truth
#noam chomsky
Noam Chomsky on alternatives to the state.
Noam Chomsky rocking the double mic tonight at Occupy Boston.
"Intellectuals make a career of trying to make simple things look hard"
Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power (via theworldofsleepers)
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#chomsky
#intellectual
"They [labourers of the 19th-20th century] were fighting against the imposition of the mass public education system—and rightly, because they understood exactly what it was: a technique to beat the independence our of the heads of the farmers and to turn them into docile obedient factory workers. That’s ultimately why public education was instituted in the United States in the first place: to meet the needs of a newly-emerging industry. See, part of the process of trying to develop a degraded and obedient labour force was to make the workers stupid an passive—and mass education was one of the ways that was achieved. And of course, there was also a much broader effort to destroy the independent working-class intellectual culture that had developed, which ranged from a huge amount of just outright force, to more subtle techniques like propaganda and public relations campaigns. And those efforts have been sustained to this day."
Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power (via theworldofsleepers)
#noam
#chomsky
#understanding
#power
#labour
#education
#independence
#obedience
#obey
#industry
#passive
#working class
#force
#propaganda
#culture
#society
#politics
#indoctrination
"Remember that the media have two basic functions. One is to indoctrinate the elites, to make sure they have the right ideas and know how to serve power. In fact, typically the elites are the most indoctrinated segment of a society, because they are the ones who are exposed to the most propaganda and actually take part in the decision-making. For them you have the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and so on. But there’s also mass media, whos main function is just to get rid of the rest of the population—to marginalize and eliminate them, so they don’t interfere with the decision-making. And the press that’s designed for that purpose isn’t the New York Times, and the Washington Post, it’s sitcoms on television, and the National Enquirer, and sex and violence, and babies with three heads, and football, all that kind of stuff. But the approximately 85 percent of the population that is the main target of that media, they don’t have it in there genes that they’re not interested in the way the world works."
Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power (via theworldofsleepers)
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#chomsky
"Look, every government has a need to frighten it’s population, and one was of doing that is to shroud it’s workings in mystery. The idea that a government has to be shrouded in mystery is something that goes back to Herodotus [ancient Greek historian]. You read Herodotus, and he describes how the Medes and others won their freedom by struggle, and then they lost their freedom when the institution of royalty was invented to create a cloak of mystery around power. See, the idea behind royalty was that there’s this other species of individuals who are beyond the norm and who the people are not supposed understand. That’s the standard way you cloak and protect power: you make it look mysterious and secret, above the ordinary person—otherwise why should anyone accept it? Well, they’re willing to accept it out of fear that some great enemies are about to destroy them, and because of that they’ll cede their authority to the Lord, or the King, or the President or something, just to protect themselves. That’s the way governments work—that’s the way any system of power works—and the secrecy system is part of it."
Noam Chomsky — Understanding Power (via theworldofsleepers)
#noam
#chomsky
#understanding
#power
#secrecy
#clandestine
#intelligence
#government
#system
#medes
#herodotus
"Modern “democratic theory” takes the view that the role of the public —the “bewildered herd,” in Lippman’s words—is to be spectators, not participants. They’re supposed to show up every couple of years to ratify decisions made elsewhere, or to select among representatives of the dominant sectors in what’s called an “election.” That’s helpful, because it has a legitimizing effect."
Noam Chomsky; Secrets, Lies, and Democracy 1994, p. 12. (via onegodonemaster)
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#anarchism
#quote
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