The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern liberalism is that the public has got to be marginalized. The general public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd. – Noam Chomsky
I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system. – Noam Chomsky
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. – Noam Chomsky
Unlimited economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege, a fact that has not gone unnoticed among liberal economists. – Noam Chomsky
We can, for example, be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there wont be a world – at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others. – Noam Chomsky
The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didnt betray it Id be ashamed of myself. – Noam Chomsky
Concentration of executive power, unless its very temporary and for specific circumstances, lets say fighting world war two, its an assault on democracy. – Noam Chomsky
The anti-globalisation movement is the most significant proponent of globalisation – but in the interests of people, not concentrations of state-private power. – Noam Chomsky
Humans have certain properties and characteristics which are intrinsic to them, just as every other organism does. Thats human nature. – Noam Chomsky
The government of Israel doesnt like the kinds of things I say, which puts them into the same category as every other government in the world. – Noam Chomsky
If you are working 50 hours a week in a factory, you dont have time to read 10 newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works. – Noam Chomsky
If we dont believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we dont believe in it at all. – Noam Chomsky
There are two problems for our species survival – nuclear war and environmental catastrophe – and were hurtling towards them. Knowingly. – Noam Chomsky
Real popular culture is folk art – coalminers songs and so forth. – Noam Chomsky
Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism. – Noam Chomsky
As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss. – Noam Chomsky
I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere. – Noam Chomsky
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever. – Noam Chomsky
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival. – Noam Chomsky
The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful. – Noam Chomsky
