This post is comprised of a compilation of quotes from Noam Chomsky, who too many of us are unaware of. Or perhaps think he is too radical. Or a communist. Or somehow not worth bothering to know about or listen to or learn from.
There is a reason why Noam Chomsky, who is a revered public intellectual around the world, is never ― and I do mean NEVER ― heard on corporate funded mainstream American media. He is dangerous. He is a danger to the status quo, to the powerful, to the propaganda machines and toxic polarizing belief systems that we are constantly fed here in the United States.
Just imagine how vastly different our nation and our world would be if this was the voice, and others like his, that we heard when we turned on the evening news. Just imagine.
That said, nothing can stop us from embodying a passionate pursuit of truth but ourselves. We can make the choice that I made many years ago now to seek to know what I do not know. We can do this. We can become aware. And we can work together in every way humanly possible to get off the suicidal path we've long been on. The eyes of the children are watching. ― Molly
The general population doesn't know what's happening, and it doesn't even know that it doesn't know.
The United States happens to be the only state in the world that has been condemned by the World Court for international terrorism.
See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence.
Everyone’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s really an easy way: Stop participating in it.
For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.
I don't bother writing about Fox News. It is too easy. What I talk about are the liberal intellectuals, the ones who portray themselves and perceive themselves as challenging power, as courageous, as standing up for truth and justice. They are basically the guardians of the faith. They set the limits. They tell us how far we can go. They say, 'Look how courageous I am.' But do not go one millimeter beyond that. At least for the educated sectors, they are the most dangerous in supporting power.
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism.
Neoliberal democracy. Instead of citizens, it produces consumers. Instead of communities, it produces shopping malls. The net result is an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless. In sum, neoliberalism is the immediate and foremost enemy of genuine participatory democracy, not just in the United States but across the planet, and will be for the foreseeable future.
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.
Education is a system of imposed ignorance.
There's a good reason why nobody studies history, it just teaches you too much.
Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.
The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective.
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
Governments will use whatever technology is available to combat their primary enemy ― their own population.
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.
As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people.
The point of public relations slogans like "Support Our Troops" is that they don't mean anything ... that's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody is going to be against and I suppose everybody will be for, because nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. But its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something, do you support our policy? And that's the one you're not allowed to talk about.
The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.
The media want to maintain their intimate relation to state power. They want to get leaks, they want to get invited to the press conferences. They want to rub shoulders with the Secretary of State, all that kind of business. To do that, you've got to play the game, and playing the game means telling their lies, serving as their disinformation apparatus.
He who controls the media controls the minds of the public.
Democracy is a danger to any powerful group.
I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom.
I was never aware of any other option but to question everything.
It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.
Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It's something you have to find out for yourself.
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines that everybody else is saying,... [o]r else you say something which in fact is true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune.
I try to encourage people to think for themselves, to question standard assumptions... Don't take assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a skeptical attitude toward anything that is conventional wisdom. Make it justify itself. It usually can't. Be willing to ask questions about what is taken for granted. Try to think things through for yourself.
The world is a very puzzling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind.
Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility. We live in free societies where we are not afraid of the police; we have extraordinary wealth available to us by global standards. If you have those things, then you have the kind of responsibility that a person does not have if he or she is slaving seventy hours a week to put food on the table; a responsibility at the very least to inform yourself about power. Beyond that, it is a question of whether you believe in moral certainties or not.
If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organizations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time.
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.
― Noam Chomsky
No comments:
Post a Comment