Excellent interview with Noam Chomsky, a national
and global treasure. — Molly
The US midterm elections of November 6, 2018, produced a divided
Congress and essentially reaffirmed the existence of two nations in one
country. But they also revealed, once again, the deep state of moral and
political depravity that prevails in the country’s political culture — at least
insofar as political campaigns go. In the exclusive interview below,
world-renowned scholar and public intellectual Noam Chomsky discusses how the
major issues confronting the United States and the world at large were barely
addressed by the majority of candidates of both parties.
C.J.
Polychroniou: Noam, with people still arguing about winners
and losers from the 2018 midterm elections (and there is clearly a lot to say
about what those elections mean), what do you consider to be the most striking
features of the latest manifestation of American democracy in action?
Noam
Chomsky: The most striking
features are brutally clear.
Humanity faces two imminent existential threats: environmental
catastrophe and nuclear war. These were virtually ignored in the campaign
rhetoric and general coverage. There was plenty of criticism of the Trump
administration, but scarcely a word about by far the most ominous positions the
administration has taken: increasing the already dire threat of nuclear war,
and racing to destroy the physical environment that organized human society
needs in order to survive.
These are the most critical and urgent questions that have arisen in
all of human history. The fact that they scarcely arose in the campaign is
truly stunning — and carries some important, if unpleasant, lessons about our
moral and intellectual culture.
To be sure, not everyone was ignoring these matters. They were front
and center for those who are constantly vigilant in their bitter class war to
preserve their immense power and privilege. Several states had important ballot
initiatives addressing the impending environmental catastrophe. The fossil fuel
industry spent huge, sometimes record-breaking, sums to defeat the initiatives
— including a carbon tax in the mostly Democratic state of Washington — and
mostly succeeded.
We should recognize that these are extraordinary crimes against
humanity. They proceed with little notice.
The Democrats helped defeat these critically important initiatives by
ignoring them. They scarcely mentioned them “in digital or TV ads, in their
campaign literature or on social media,” a New
York Times surveyfound. Nor, of course, were they mentioned by the
Republicans, whose leadership is dedicated to driving humanity off the cliff as
soon as possible — in full knowledge of what they are doing, as easily
demonstrated.
The Times article goes on to explain that “Environmental activists and
political scientists say it is a reflection of the issue’s perpetual low
ranking among voters, even Democratic voters, and of the intense polarization
along party lines that has developed around global warming.” The article failed
to add that this assessment is an incredible indictment of the country and its
political, social, economic and media institutions, all of which, so the
assessment claims, have sunk to such a level of depravity that the question of
whether organized human society can survive in any minimally tolerable form, in
the near future, is of little consequence.
Whether that unspoken indictment is correct, we cannot be sure. It is
perhaps of some significance that one Democratic candidate, Sean Casten,
flipped a Republican district while making
impending climate disaster the centerpiece of his campaign.
Please continue this interview here: https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-moral-depravity-defines-us-politics/
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