Go back to the Bible, the Old Testament. I mean there were people who we would call intelectuals, there, they were called prophets, but they were basically intelectuals: they were people who were doing critical, geopolitical analysis, talking about the decisions of the king were going to lead to destruction; condemning inmorality, calling for justice for widows and orphans. What we would call dissident intelectuals. Were they nicely treated? No, they were driven into the desert, they were imprisoned, they were denounced. They were intelectuals who conformed.
Noam ChomskyKarl Marx said, โThe task is not just to understand the world but to change it.โ A variant to keep in mind is that if you want to change the world youโd better try to understand it. That doesnโt mean listening to a talk or reading a book, though thatโs helpful sometimes. You learn from participating. You learn from others. You learn from the people youโre trying to organize. We all have to gain the understanding and the experience to formulate and implement ideas.
Noam ChomskyIf you claim to have a theory that deduces unexpected consequences from nontrivial principles, let's see it.
Noam ChomskyIn southern culture, possession of a gun became kind of a sign of manhood, not just because of slaves but other white men. If you had a gun, you're not going to push me around. You know, I'm not one of those guys you can kick in the face.
Noam ChomskyIt's easy to put [serious threats] aside, and the media don't talk about them. Other things are more important. How am I going to put food on the table tomorrow? That's what I've got to worry about, and so on. It's very serious, but it's hard to bring out the enormity of these issues, when they do not have the dramatic character of something you can show in the movies, with a nuclear weapons falling and everything disappears.
Noam ChomskyIn the primary debates for the 2016 election, every single Republican candidate was a climate change denier, with one exception, John Kasich - the "rational moderate" - who said it may be happening but we shouldn't do anything about it. For a long time, the media have downplayed the issue.
Noam Chomsky