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Noam Chomsky Quotes - Page 4

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Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

War, Stopping, Way

"Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times". Documentary, www.imdb.com. 2002.

You don't have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system - a private system including media, intellectual opinion forming magazines and the participation of the most highly educated sections of the population. Such people ought to be referred to as "Commissars - for that is what their essential function is - to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis of national and global institutions, issues, and policies".

Truth, Independent, Issues

"Language and Politics". Book by Noam Chomsky, 1988.

One of the greatest dangers is secular religion - state worship.

Worship, Danger, States

"Overcoming Despair as the Republicans Take Over: A Conversation with Noam Chomsky". Interview with Michael Lerner, www.tikkun.org. March 1, 2011.

One might ask why tobacco is legal and marijuana not. A possible answer is suggested by the nature of the crop. Marijuana can be grown almost anywhere, with little difficulty. It might not be easily marketable by major corporations. Tobacco is quite another story.

Marijuana, Stories, Answers

Noam Chomsky (1992). “Deterring Democracy”, p.122, Macmillan

Globalization is the result of powerful governments, especially that of the United States, pushing trade deals and other accords down the throats of the world’s people to make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to dominate the economies of nations around the world without having obligations to the peoples of those nations.

Powerful, Government, People

Noam Chomsky (2011). “Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order”, p.10, Seven Stories Press

What is called 'capitalism'is basically a system of corporate mercantilism, with huge and largely unaccountable private tyrannies exercising vast control over the economy, political systems, and social and cultural life, operating in close cooperation with powerful states that intervene massively in the domestic economy and international society.

Powerful, Exercise, Accountability

Noam Chomsky (2004). “Language and Politics”, p.784, AK Press

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

Hero, Comforting, Anarchy

Noam Chomsky (2001). “9-11 [neuf-onze]”, p.68, Seven Stories Press

Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic and military states. The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business… the public are to be observers, not participants, consumers of ideology as well as products.

Military, Government, Ignorant Masses

"Force and Opinion". Article by Noam Chomsky, chomsky.info. July, 1991.

The ideal is to create a completely fragmented atomized society where everybody is totally alone, doing nothing but trying to pursue created wants, and the wants are created.

Trying, Doing Nothing, Want

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.

Inspirational, Media, People

Karl Marx said, “The task is not just to understand the world but to change it.” A variant to keep in mind is that if you want to change the world you’d better try to understand it. That doesn’t mean listening to a talk or reading a book, though that’s helpful sometimes. You learn from participating. You learn from others. You learn from the people you’re trying to organize. We all have to gain the understanding and the experience to formulate and implement ideas.

Book, Reading, Mean

"Occupy". Book by Noam Chomsky, 2012.

Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They're designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators.

Sports, Peace, Attitude

You keep plugging away--that's the way social change takes place. That's the way every social change in history has taken place: by a lot of people, who nobody ever heard of, doing work.

Taken, People, Way

Noam Chomsky (2013). “Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky”, p.139, The New Press

If you want to make changes in the world, you're going to have to be there day after day doing the boring, straightforward work of getting a couple of people interested and building a slightly bigger organization and carrying out the next move and suffering frustration and finally getting somewhere. That's how the world changes.

Couple, Moving, Frustration

Source: progressive.org

To live a life of honesty and integrity is a responsibility of every decent person.

Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility

Source: www.publicanthropology.org

It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.

People, Car, Political

111,

If kids are studying for a test, they're not going to learn anything. We all know that from our own experience.

Kids, Tests, Study

Source: www.truth-out.org

Capitalism’s concept of competitive man who seeks only to maximize wealth and power, who subjects himself to market relationships, to exploitation and external authority, is anti-human and intolerable in the deepest sense

Men, Wealth, Authority

Noam Chomsky (2013). “On Anarchism”, p.139, New Press, The

The truth of the matter is that about 99 percent of teaching is making the students feel interestedin the material. Then the other 1 percent has to do with your methods. And that's not just true of languages. It's true of every subject.

Education, Teaching, Reading

Unfortunately, you can’t vote the rascals out, because you never voted them in, in the first place

Firsts, Vote, Rascals

Noam Chomsky, Carlos Peregrín Otero (2003). “Chomsky on Democracy & Education”, p.140, Psychology Press

Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a disciplinary technique, and by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the disciplinarian culture. This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy.

School, Thinking, People

See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence.

People, Violence, One Thing

Noam Chomsky (2013). “Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky”, p.124, The New Press

As any good teacher knows, the methods of instruction and the range of material covered are matters of small importance as compared with the success in arousing the natural curiosity of the students and stimulating their interest in exploring on their own.

Teacher, Teaching, Curiosity

Noam Chomsky (1988). “Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures”, p.135, MIT Press

The term 'globalisation' is conventionally used to refer to the specific form of investor-rights integration designed by wealth and power, for their own interests.

Rights, Wealth, Used

The United States happens to be the only state in the world that has been condemned by the World Court for international terrorism.

United States, World, Terrorism

Noam Chomsky, John Junkerman, Takei Masakazu (2015). “Power and Terror: Conflict, Hegemony, and the Rule of Force”, p.29, Routledge

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