Of course, we [ with Edward Herman] have a purpose: namely, to encourage readers to undertake what might be called "a course in intellectual self-defense," and to suggest ways to proceed; in other words, to help people undermine the dedicated efforts to "manufacture consent" and to turn them into passive objects rather than agents who control their own fate.
Noam ChomskyOur minds are specifically adapted to developing certain theories, and we have a science if the theories that are available to our minds happen to be close to true. Well, there is no particular reason to suppose that the intersection of true theories and theories that are accessible to the mind is very large. It may not be very large.
Noam ChomskyA captured pirate was brought before Alexander the Great. โHow dare you molest the sea?โ asked Alexander. โHow dare you molest the whole world?โ the pirate replied, and continued: โBecause I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief; you, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor.
Noam ChomskyA default of the US government would not only be very harmful here, it would probably send the country back into deep recession, but it just might crash the international financial system.
Noam ChomskyI am not too happy with terms like โthe leftโ, to be honest. And I donโt use it muchโฆ.if by โthe leftโ you mean people who are committed to peace and justice and freedom and so on, there canโt be elements of the left opposed to workersโ movement, at least under that definition.
Noam ChomskyLatin America has much richer resources. You'd expect it to be far more advanced than East Asia, but it had the disadvantage of being under imperialist wings.
Noam ChomskyEurope is being subjected to the kinds of programs that devastated Latin America for many years. Latin America has thrown them out and is pulling out: It's successful; it's democratizing; it's economically developing; and it's free from the shrapnel of US imperialism for 25 years. Meanwhile, Western Europe is destroying itself systematically, destroying itself going in the opposite direction.
Noam Chomsky