[Ronald] Reagan bitterly hated unions and wanted them destroyed. This began with the air controllers' strike and went on from there. Noam Chomsky More Quotes by Noam Chomsky More Quotes From Noam Chomsky The war against working people should be understood to be a real war…. Specifically in the U.S., which happens to have a highly class-conscious business class…. And they have long seen themselves as fighting a bitter class war, except they don’t want anybody else to know about it. Noam Chomsky fightingrealwar The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy. Noam Chomsky designdemocracyprinciples French intellectual life has, in my opinion, been turned into something cheap and meretricious by the 'star' system. It is like Hollywood. Thus we go from one absurdity to another - Stalinism, existentialism. Lacan, Derrida - some of them obscene ( Stalinism), some simply infantile and ridiculous ( Lacan, Derrida). What is striking, however, is the pomposity and self-importance, at each stage. Noam Chomsky starsintellectualself I mean, what's the elections? You know, two guys, same background, wealth, political influence, went to the same elite university, joined the same secret society where you're trained to be a ruler - they both can run because they're financed by the same corporate institutions. Noam Chomsky runningtwomean I think we can be reasonably confident that if the American population had the slightest idea of what is being done in their name, they would be utterly appalled. Noam Chomsky namesideasthinking In fact, it's doing it all over the world. Obama, first of all, is running the biggest terrorist operation that exists, maybe in history. The drone assassination campaigns, which are just part of it. All of these operations, they are terror operations. Noam Chomsky dronescampaignsrunning Nothing can justify crimes such as those of September 11, but we can think of the United States as an innocent victim only if we adopt the convenient path of ignoring the record of its actions and those of its allies, which are, after all, hardly a secret. Noam Chomsky september-11secretthinking Humans have certain properties and characteristics which are intrinsic to them, just as every other organism does. That's human nature. Noam Chomsky characteristicshuman-naturedoe Bolivia is a striking example. The mostly white, Europeanized elite, which is a minority, happens to be sitting on most of the hydrocarbon reserves. For the first time Bolivia is becoming democratic. So it's therefore bitterly hated by the West, which despises democracy, because it's much too dangerous. Noam Chomsky democracyexamplewhite Nicaragua dealt with the problem of terrorism in exactly the right way. It followed international law and treaty obligations. It collected evidence, brought the evidence to the highest existing tribunal, the International Court of Justice, and received a verdict - which, of course, the U.S. dismissed with contempt. Noam Chomsky nicaragualawjustice The one state/two state debate is irrelevant as Israel and the US consolidate Greater Israel. Noam Chomsky debateisraeltwo Latin America, for the first time in 500 years, is moving towards a degree of independence. Noam Chomsky latinyearsmoving 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 terrible-eventsquestsreflection Anarcho-syndic alism took for granted that working people ought to control their own work, its conditions, the enterprises in which they work, along with communities, so they should be associated with one another in free associations, and democracy of that kind should be the foundational elements of a more general free society. Noam Chomsky democracycommunitypeople Governments are not representative. Noam Chomsky representativesgovernment Labor # Unions are the leading force for # democratization and # progress . Noam Chomsky unionsprogressforce If the principle is, "Let's not get lethal substances out to the public", the first one you'd go after is tobacco. The next one you'd go after is alcohol. Way down the list you'd get to cocaine, and sort of invisibly low you'd get to marijuana. Noam Chomsky marijuanaalcoholprinciples It's only terrorism if they do it to us. When we do much worse to them, it's not terrorism. Noam Chomsky terrorismifs Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth. Noam Chomsky realsongart There are two problems for our species' survival - nuclear war and environmental catastrophe - and we're hurtling towards them. Knowingly. Noam Chomsky survivalwartwo
