Saturday, July 6, 2019

Noam Chomsky: The General Population Doesn't Know What's Happening, and It Doesn't Even Know That It Doesn't Know


Noam Chomsky has long been the voice of integrity, courage, wisdom, and truth. He is a national and global treasure. And yet how many of us know this?
This quote also certainly applies to the ecological and climate crises. Most Americans do not know the depths of this crisis. And too many of us unknowingly continue to support people in positions of power who have a clear record of alignment with the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street, the military industrial complex, and other neoliberal capitalist interests that have long been destroying our country and the Earth. 
This quote from Noam Chomsky also reminds me of a quote from my wise oldest son after he returned from living for a month with a family in Nicaragua. Brian challenged me: “What better way to control a people than to convince them that they’re not being controlled?” My son was speaking to the truth about the United States.
One measure of our understanding and consciousness of the truth about our history, our foreign and domestic policies, and the most critical issues facing us all is whether or not we are turning to independent media resources where we hear the voices of Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Scahill, Bill McKibben, Jane Mayer, Jane Goodall, Joanna Macy, Dahr Jamail, Amy Goodman, Glen Greenwald, Chris Hedges, George Monbiot, Arundhati Roy, Vandana Shiva, Riane Eisler, David Korten, Henry Giroux, Nancy MacLean, Michael Meade, and countless others who are never or rarely heard on corporate media.
Choosing our resources and teachers wisely is the imperative of these times in which we are living with the most dangerous president our nation has ever known, where huge and deadly financial interests have long overtaken our media and political systems, and where we are living during a sixth major extinction and facing our own extinction — unless we stand together against the corporate interests that are destroying our nation and the planet AND for the national and global movements that are fiercely fighting for a just, sustainable, and peaceful world.
May more and more of us recognize that what’s at stake is all that we love and cherish. May we increasingly build bridges of partnership and solidarity in this most important work to save ourselves and make possible a livable planet for our children and grandchildren and all children and species everywhere. 🙏Molly

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