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.
Noam ChomskyI had two spinster aunts who were seamstresses, and of course unemployed in the 1930s, but the union gave them a life. They had a couple of weeks in the country for a union installation and they had educational programs and all sorts of things. There was a life, you know, a real community.
Noam ChomskyThe similarity is that concentration of capital influences virtually everything that goes on. It influences the way the media functions, it very powerfully influences how the government works and it of course influences corporate sector elements, like say how Google or Amazon present materials that reach the public.
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 ChomskyIf you take a look at places like Harvard, it's striking. In the early ,50s, I think there were a handful of Jewish professors, three or four. But by the 1960s, there were Jewish deans and administrators. In fact, one of the reasons why MIT became a great university was because they admitted Jews whereas Harvard did not.
Noam ChomskyItโs ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? Theyโre totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. Thereโs about as much freedom as under Stalinism.
Noam Chomsky