The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know. It's very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can't fight the world alone. Noam Chomsky More Quotes by Noam Chomsky More Quotes From Noam Chomsky In fact, the capitalist class in the '50s was sort of part of a social contract. It was part of the tenor of the times. Noam Chomsky socialclassfacts Of course, everybody says they're for peace. Hitler was for peace. Everybody is for peace. The question is: What kind of peace? Noam Chomsky courseskind The internet, since it is publicly created, ought to be publicly controlled. Noam Chomsky controlledoughtinternet See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence. Noam Chomsky one-thingviolencepeople Plainly, children learn their language. I don't speak Swahili. And it cannot be that my language is 'an innate property of our brain.' Otherwise I would have been genetically programmed to speak (some variety of) English. Noam Chomsky languagebrainchildren Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy. Noam Chomsky politicalcommunitythinking In the years of the Reagan-Bush administration alone, about 1.5 million people were killed by South Africa just in the surrounding countries. Forget what was happening in South Africa and Namibia. Noam Chomsky mediacountryyears If it's wrong when they do it, it's wrong when we do it. Noam Chomsky international-relationsifs The internet is something created largely by public funding. Noam Chomsky fundinginternet It is not a war. It is murder. Noam Chomsky murderwar As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists. What they call themselves doesn’t matter to me. The world is full of suffering, distress, violence and catastrophes. Students must decide: does something concern you or not? I say: look around, analyze the problems, ask yourself what you can do and set out on the work! Noam Chomsky sufferingchallengespeople If workers are more insecure, that's very 'healthy' for the society, because if workers are insecure, they won't ask for wages, they won't go on strike, they won't call for benefits; they'll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that's optimal for corporations' economic health. Noam Chomsky insecurewageshealthy I think that what's actually happening is the collapse of the Center - the centrist semi-coalitions, mildly social-democrat, mildly conservative, that have been running the countries for years. They are severely declining. You can see it in voting; you can see it also in popular attitudes: contempt for what are called "the élites," the experts, the people in charge. Noam Chomsky runningattitudecountry The answer to subversion of democracy is more democracy, more freedom, more justice. Noam Chomsky democracyanswersjustice Popular support for alternative energy has been very high for years. But it harms corporate profits. Noam Chomsky supportenergyyears Take the US. Women were not even able to vote until 90 ago, at about the same time they gained the right in Afghanistan. Rights of former slaves were very limited until the 1960s, and in some ways still are. In these and other domains there has been progress in democracy, though still seriously flawed. In other dimensions - the control of concentrated wealth over the political process, for example, things have gotten much worse in recent years. And there is much more, in both directions. Noam Chomsky politicalrightsyears Let's imagine again an observer looking at us without any preconceptions. I think he would be struck by the fact that although human beings have the capacity to develop scientific knowledge, it must be a very limited capacity because it is only done in very narrow and specific domains. Noam Chomsky donewould-bethinking I think this country and the world would be far better off if the US is not an outlaw state. Noam Chomsky countryworldthinking In our case [the United States] it happens to be basically corporate structure. Much of the population is going to be harmed by that. Those policies are designed to turn state power into an instrument that works for the wealthy. Maybe there are some crumbs for the rest of the population, maybe not. But that's given. Noam Chomsky populationunited-statesstructure If you don't like what someone has to say, argue with them. Noam Chomsky ifsarguing
