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Noam Chomsky Quotes - Page 32

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These are questions for action, not speculation, which is idle.

These are questions for action, not speculation, which is idle.

Action, Speculation, Idle

One substitute for the disappearing Evil Empire (The Soviet Union) has been the threat of drug traffickers from Latin America. In early September 1989, a major government-media blitz was launched by the President. That month the AP wires carried more stories about drugs than about Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa combined. If you looked at television, every news program had a big section on how drugs were destroying our society, becoming the greatest threat to our existence, etc.

Latin, Media, Government

Our yearning for democracy is accompanied by a no less profound yearning for peace. And the media also faced the task of historical engineering to establish this required truth. We therefore have phenomena called 'peace missions' and the 'peace process'. These are terms that apply to whatever the United States happens to be doing or advocating at some moment... in short, 'War is Peace'.

War, Engineering, Media

Borders are semiporous. Capital flows more freely than people across them. on C Span.

People, Borders, Flow

It's as if we're higher apes who had a language faculty inserted.

Apes, Language, Faculty

The basic principle, rarely violated, is that what conflicts with the requirements of power and privilege does not exist.

Principles, Doe, Requirements

Noam Chomsky (1992). “Deterring Democracy”, p.79, Macmillan

We are entering a period of human history that may provide an answer to the question of whether it is better to be smart than stupid.

Smart, Stupid, Entering

Noam Chomsky (2007). “Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance”, p.1, Macmillan

Somebodys paying the corporations that destroyed Iraq and the corporations that are rebuilding it. Theyre getting paid by the American taxpayer in both cases. So we pay them to destroy the country, and then we pay them to rebuild it. Those are gifts from U.S. taxpayer to U.S. corporations.

Country, Iraq, Pay

Debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous, far larger than credit card debt. It’s a trap for the rest of your life because the laws are designed so that you can’t get out of it. If a business, say, gets in too much debt it can declare bankruptcy, but individuals can almost never be relieved of student debt through bankruptcy.

Law, Cards, Credit

"Chomsky: How America's Great University System Is Being Destroyed" by Noam Chomsky, www.alternet.org. February 28, 2014.

A principle familiar to propagandists is that the doctrine to be instilled in the target audience should not be articulated: that would only expose them to reflection, inquiry, and, very likely, ridicule. The proper procedure is to drill them home by constantly presupposing them, so that they become the very condition for discourse.

Home, Reflection, Target Audience

Noam Chomsky, Edward S. Herman (2004). “Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda”, p.41, Pluto Press

Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny have created an important political radio show that balances humor and unreported news. At a time when media conglomerates dominate the airwaves, independent media like Citizen Radio is vital to national discourse.

Independent, Media, Political

... the media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.

Media, Supportive, Analysis

Noam Chomsky (1989). “Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies”, p.10, Pluto Press

Pick the topic you like: the Middle East, international terrorism, Central America, whatever it is - the picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies. It's all been a marvelous success from the point of view in deterring the threat of democracy, achieved under conditions of freedom, which is extremely interesting. It's not like a totalitarian state, where it's done by force. These achievements are under conditions of freedom.

Lying, Reality, America

Noam Chomsky (2011). “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda”, p.37, Seven Stories Press

In my own professional work I have touched on a variety of different fields. I've done work in mathematical linguistics, for example, without any professional credentials in mathematics; in this subject I am completely self-taught, and not very well taught.

Self, Done, Fields

Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault (2006). “The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature”, The New Press

...a very terrifying aspect of our society, and other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe [war and human suffering]. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler ...or other that crop up - these people would not able to operate were it not for this apathy and equanimity - and therefore I think that it is in some sense the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who should share a very serious burden of guilt, that they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme and more violent.

War, Thinking, People

Kaplan can't understand trivialities. The triviality here is that nobody except the ultra right-wing jingoists like Kaplan are comparing atrocities by various countries. What honest people are saying seems to be incomprehensible: that we should keep to the elementary moral level of the gospels. We should pay attention to our own crimes and stop committing them. This would be true even if we were killing one person, OK? And it's even more true when we're killing millions of people.

Country, Wings, People

"Noam Chomsky On the Middle East and the US War on Terrorism". "Hot Type" with Evan Solomon, dissidentvoice.org. April 16, 2002.

Quite generally, international affairs have more than a slight resemblance to the Mafia. The Godfather does not take it lightly when he is crossed, even by a small storekeeper.

Mafia, Doe, Affair

Noam Chomsky (2007). “Interventions”, p.198, City Lights Publishers

I see no anti-Semitic implications in denial of the existence of gas chambers, or even denial of the Holocaust.

Holocaust, Denial, Existence

"Why pick deluded Chomsky for prize?" by Ted Lapkin, www.dailytelegraph.com.au. June 5, 2011.

Farming out atrocities to paramilitaries is standard operating procedure.

Atrocities, Farming, Procedures

David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky (2001). “Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky”, p.188, Pluto Press

It makes sense to work towards a better world, but it doesn't make any sense to have illusions about what the real world is.

Real, World, Illusion

Noam Chomsky's Seminar at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, February 2, 2000.

The Irish sea is a chasm, and it just depends who's been holding the whip for 800 years and who's been under it for 800 years.

Years, Sea, Chasms

"Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause". Documentary, War, 2003.

Clinton, Kennedy, they all carried out mass murder, but they didn't think that that was what they were doing - nor does Bush. You know, they were defending justice and democracy from greater evils.

Thinking, Evil, Justice

"Essays ('Six: Interview with Noam Chomsky, 2004')". Book by Wallace Shawn, 2009.

If you want to talk about distributing substances that are lethal, . . . let's be serious. Tobacco is far ahead of anything else. Alcohol is second.

Alcohol, Substance, Want

It was declared by Congress that marijuana makes people insane. But . . . lawyers, defense lawyers, got the idea, OK, I can use this for an insanity defense.

Marijuana, Ideas, People

Modern China; one also finds many things that are really quite admirable.

Modern, China, Admirable

"The Legitimacy of Violence as a Political Act?". Noam Chomsky during Debates with Hannah Arendt, Susan Sontag, chomsky.info. December 15, 1967.

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