Noam Chomsky Quotes - Page 18

• One of the truths about the world is that there are two superpowers, one a huge power which happens to have its boot on your neck; another, a smaller power which happens to have its boot on other people's necks. I think that anyone in the Third World would be making a grave error if they succumbed to illusions about these matters

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Errors, Two

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• Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.

  Noam Chomsky

  Weapons, Language, Affair

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• Now, the Libertarian Party, is a *capitalist* party. It's in favor of what *I* would regard a *particular form* of authoritarian control. Namely, the kind that comes through private ownership and control, which is an *extremely* rigid system of domination - people have to... people can survive, by renting themselves to it, and basically in no other way... I do disagree with them *very* sharply, and I think that they are not..understanding the *fundamental* doctrine, that you should be free from domination and control, including the control of the manager and the owner.

  Noam Chomsky

  Party, Thinking, People

  "Donahue/Pozner", February 14, 1992.

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• The first step is to penetrate the clouds of deceit and distortion and learn the truth about the world, then to organize and act to change it. That's never been impossible and never been easy.

  Noam Chomsky

  Clouds, Political, Deceit

  Noam Chomsky (1996). “Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.131, South End Press

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• But, that’s the whole point of corporatization - to try to remove the public from making decisions over their own fate, to limit the public arena, to control opinion, to make sure that the fundamental decisions that determine how the world is going to be run - which includes production, commerce, distribution, thought, social policy, foreign policy, everything - are not in the hands of the public, but rather in the hands of highly concentrated private power. In effect, tyranny unaccountable to the public.

  Noam Chomsky

  Running, Fate, Hands

  "On Microsoft and Corporate Control of the Internet". Interview with Anna Couey, chomsky.info. May 6, 1998.

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• Everything depends very much on who you are, what your values are, what your commitments are, what circumstances you live in and what options you're willing to undertake, and that determines what you ought to be doing.

  Noam Chomsky

  Commitment, Circumstances, Determine

  Source: www.iww.org

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• It's been a real success - one of the great business successes in the United States - to break down organization, to separate people too: it's part of consumerism. If you can drive people toward individual consumption, that's the highest goal in life. And furthermore, drive them into debt so they're trapped. You don't have to worry about a democracy function because people are trapped and they're alone.

  Noam Chomsky

  Real, Organization, People

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• ...free enterprise, [is] a term that refers, in practice, to a system of public subsidy and private profit, with massive government intervention in the economy to maintain a welfare state for the rich.

  Noam Chomsky

  Government, Practice, Political

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “How the World Works”, p.64, Soft Skull Press

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• A drone strike is a terror weapon, we don't talk about it that way. It is; just imagine you are walking down the street and you don't know whether in 5 minutes there is going to be an explosion across the street from some place up in the sky that you can't see. Somebody will be killed, and whoever is around will be killed, maybe you'll be injured if you're there. That is a terror weapon. It terrorizes villages, regions, huge areas. It's the most massive terror campaign going on by a long shot.

  Noam Chomsky

  Sky, Long, Drones

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• Social and political issues in general seem to me fairly simple; the effort to obfuscate them in esoteric and generally vacuous theory is one of the contributions of the intelligentsia to enhancing their own power and the power of those they serve.

  Noam Chomsky

  Simple, Issues, Effort

  Noam Chomsky (2004). “Language and Politics”, p.345, AK Press

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• The idea that people should be allowed to decide something about their own fate is just anathema to European elites.

  Noam Chomsky

  Fate, Ideas, People

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

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• Advertising is tax deductible, so we all pay for the privilege of being manipulated and controlled.

  Noam Chomsky

  Pay, Privilege, Advertising

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.301, Soft Skull Press

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• There's a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy.

  Noam Chomsky

  Public Opinion, Gaps, Policy

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• In general, the attitude towards Nazi Germany was not that hostile, especially if you look at the U.S. State Department reports. In 1937 the State Department was describing Adolf Hitler as a "moderate" who was holding off the forces of the right and the left.

  Noam Chomsky

  Attitude, Germany, Looks

  Source: thehumanist.com

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• It is quite possible--overwhelmingly probable, one might guess--that we will always learn more about human life and personality from novels than from scientific psychology

  Noam Chomsky

  Personality, Psychology, Might

  Noam Chomsky (1988). “Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures”, p.159, MIT Press

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• The anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.

  Noam Chomsky

  Reflection, Terrible Events, Quests

  Noam Chomsky (2015). “Because We Say So”, p.55, City Lights Books

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• Bohemian Grove seems to be a kind of frat house affair. Bilderberg [philosophy] may be marginally more serious. The CFR is transparent. You can read their publications. In the 18th century it perhaps made some sense to conjure up the Illuminati and Masons. Not since.

  Noam Chomsky

  Philosophy, House, May

  Source: thefifthcolumnnews.com

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• In fact, it was stated early in the first Bush [presidency], Bush I, in one of their documents they pointed out in the future, US wars are going to be against much weaker enemies. And they have to be won quickly and decisively before a popular reaction develops. And Iif you take a look, that's what's done. Look at Panama, for instance, over a couple of days; and Kosovo, no American troops.

  Noam Chomsky

  Couple, War, Enemy

  Source: www.salon.com

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• The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

  Noam Chomsky

  Design, Democracy, Principles

  Noam Chomsky (2010). “Hopes and Prospects”, p.89, Penguin UK

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• When I look at public opinion, I'm not far out of the mainstream. I'm in it, in many respects. In some respects, public opinion goes beyond anything I've ever said.

  Noam Chomsky

  Public Opinion, Looks, Mainstream

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• On humanitarian intervention in general, I guess my view is not unlike the view that was attributed to Gandhi, accurately or not, when he was supposedly asked what he thought about western civilization. He is supposed to have said that he thought it would be a good idea. Similarly, humanitarian intervention would be a good idea, in principle.

  Noam Chomsky

  Views, Civilization, Ideas

  Seminar at Bard College, New York, February 2, 2000.

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• States are violent to the extent that they have the power to act in the interests of those with domestic power

  Noam Chomsky

  Violent, States, Interest

  Noam Chomsky (2004). “Language and Politics”, p.341, AK Press

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• Politicians don't want democracy here in America, why would they want it in the Middle East?

  Noam Chomsky

  America, Democracy, Middle East

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• We need not stride resolutely towards catastrophe, merely because those are the marching orders.

  Noam Chomsky

  Order, Needs, Stride

  Noam Chomsky (2001). “9-11 [neuf-onze]”, p.70, Seven Stories Press

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• ...dissent, protest, presures of a wide variety that escape elite control can modify the calculus of costs of planners, and offer a slight hope that Washington can be compelled to permit at least some steps towards "justice, freedom and democracy" within its domains.

  Noam Chomsky

  Justice, Democracy, Cost

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