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Noam Chomsky Quotes about Democracy

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The best defense against democracy is to distract people.

The best defense against democracy is to distract people.

People, Democracy, Defense

Noam Chomsky (2011). “How the World Works”, p.241, Soft Skull Press

Because they don't teach the truth about the world, schools have to rely on beating students over the head with propaganda about democracy. If schools were, in reality, democratic, there would be no need to bombard students with platitudes about democracy. They would simply act and behave democratically, and we know this does not happen. The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is.

School, Reality, Democracy

Noam Chomsky (2004). “Chomsky on Mis-Education”, p.16, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

As long as individuals are compelled to rent themselves on the market to those who are willing to hire them, as long as their role in production is simply that of ancillary tools, then there are striking elements of coercion and oppression that make talk of democracy very limited, if even meaningful.

Meaningful, Long, Democracy

"The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism". Interviewed with Peter Jay, chomsky.info. July 25, 1976.

Under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control.

Democracy, Principles, Definitions

Noam Chomsky (2004). “Language and Politics”, p.138, AK Press

You can’t have meaningful political democracy without functioning economic democracy.

Meaningful, Political, Democracy

The United States is unusual among the industrial democracies in the rigidity of the system of ideological control - 'indoctrination,' we might say - exercised through the mass media.

Media, Democracy, United States

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

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state...

Media, Political, Democracy

"On Propaganda". WBAI Interview, chomsky.info. January 1992.

In a democracy the day when you pay your taxes, April 15, would be a day of celebration, because you're getting together to provide resources for the programs you decided on.

Democracy, Together, Would Be

Source: www.iww.org

The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies.

Government, Democracy, Corporations

During the 1960s, large groups of people who are normally passive and apathetic began to try to enter the political arena to press their demands.... The naive might call that democracy, but that's because they don't understand. The sophisticated understand that that's the crisis of democracy.

People, Political, Democracy

"Manufacturing Consent". Noam Chomsky's Lecture at the University of Wisconsin in in Madison, Wisconsin, March 15, 1989.

Julian Assange shouldn't be the subject of a grand jury hearing, he should be given a medal. He's contributing to democracy.

Democracy, Hearing, Should

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Even Stalin proclaimed his love for democracy. We do not learn about the nature of systems of power by listening to their rhetoric.

Listening, Democracy, His Love

"Kurds within the Arab spring and the Middle East Crisis". Interview with Haidar Nasih, chomsky.info. December 30, 2012.

In the 1960s, various parts of the population became energized and began to enter the public arena to call for the rights of women, students, young people, old people, farmers and workers. What are called "special interests" - meaning the whole population - they began to press to enter the public arena. And they said that puts too much pressure on the state and therefore we have to have more moderation in democracy and they should go back and be quiet and obedient.

Rights, People, Democracy

Source: www.truth-out.org

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.

White, Democracy, Example

Politicians don't want democracy here in America, why would they want it in the Middle East?

America, Democracy, Middle East

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

...dissent, protest, presures of a wide variety that escape elite control can modify the calculus of costs of planners, and offer a slight hope that Washington can be compelled to permit at least some steps towards "justice, freedom and democracy" within its domains.

Justice, Democracy, Cost

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

Design, Democracy, Principles

Noam Chomsky (2010). “Hopes and Prospects”, p.89, Penguin UK

I think a decent society should protect rights to private property within limits, but not concentrations of private power that infringe on the freedom and rights of others, including exploitation of labor, and that convert any democratic forms into what have been called sometimes "hierarchical democracies," like ours, in which some have vastly greater influence over public policy than others. Spelling all of this out is a complex matter that raises many issue and problems that are impossible to address here.

Thinking, Democracy, Impossible

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Democracy, in any rational form, also imposes conditions on majority rule. That's what the Bill of Rights is about, for example.

Rights, Majority Rule, Democracy

Source: thefifthcolumnnews.com

There isn't much point arguing about the word "libertarian." It would make about as much sense to argue with an unreconstructed Stalinist about the word "democracy" - recall that they called what they'd constructed "peoples' democracies." The weird offshoot of ultra-right individualist anarchism that is called "libertarian" here happens to amount to advocacy of perhaps the worst kind of imaginable tyranny, namely unaccountable private tyranny. If they want to call that "libertarian," fine; after all, Stalin called his system "democratic." But why bother arguing about it?

Democracy, Want, Libertarian

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.

People, Community, Democracy

The answer to subversion of democracy is more democracy, more freedom, more justice.

Justice, Democracy, Answers

Source: www.publicanthropology.org

Democracy is a danger to any powerful group.

Powerful, Democracy, Groups

"Chomsky: "The Business Elites ... Are Instinctive Marxists"". Interview with Keane Bhatt, www.truth-out.org. November 19, 2010.

The neoliberal programs of the last generation have in fact been, and were intended to be, a pretty serious attack on democracy, but also they've led to stagnation or decline for large parts of the population - the working class, the lower middle class, these people have essentially been cast aside.

Class, People, Democracy

Source: www.brooklynrail.org

Looking at polls of Arab public opinion, you look at popular figures, the most popular figure is the prime minister of Turkey, Erdogan, and then it goes down the list. You get Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, you don't get Obama, or in fact any western leader. The public doesn't want the whole imperial project. So if you had democracy, it would be all over.

Turkeys, Leader, Democracy

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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