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Noam Chomsky Quotes

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Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes

“We still name our military helicopter gunships after victims of genocide. Nobody bats an eyelash about that: Blackhawk. Apache. And Comanche. If the Luftwaffe named its military helicopters Jew and Gypsy, I suppose people would notice.”

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Book:Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky
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“When I was in high school I asked myself at one point: "Why do I care if my high school's team wins the football game? I don't know anybody on the team, they have nothing to do with me... why am I here and applaud? It does not make any sense." But the point is, it does make sense: It's a way of building up irrational attitudes of submission to authority and group cohesion behind leadership elements. In fact it's training in irrational jingoism. That's also a feature of competitive sports.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“If by 'intellectual' you mean people who are a special class who are in the business of imposing thoughts and forming ideas for people in power, and telling people what they should believe...they're really more a kind of secular priesthood, whose task it is to uphold the doctrinal truths of the society. And the population SHOULD be anti-intellectual in that repect.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Karl Marx said, “The task is not just to understand the world but to change it.” A variant to keep in mind is that if you want to change the world you’d better try to understand it. That doesn’t mean listening to a talk or reading a book, though that’s helpful sometimes. You learn from participating. You learn from others. You learn from the people you’re trying to organize. We all have to gain the understanding and the experience to formulate and implement ideas.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”

PeopleIfsInspirationalBelieveHateBeliefFreedomRightsRelationshipExpressionCommunicationWise WordsHeroSpeechDon't BelieveHuman RightsEqualityLibertarianCivil RightsDespiseCensorshipFree SpeechFreedom Of SpeechFirst AmendmentFreedom And LibertyDespisedFreedom LibertyCivil LibertiesFreedom Of ExpressionLinguisticsFreedom Of The PressHuman FreedomLimiting GovernmentRights And FreedomsLimited FreedomPolitical WillHate SpeechPolitical FreedomCensoredCensoringAmerica FreedomLinguistsLimiting FreedomLimiting Freedom Of ExpressionLiberty Of SpeechBelieve In UsFirst Amendment RightsFreedom Of Speech And Expression
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Democracy doesn't mean much if people have to confront concentrated systems of economic power as isolated individuals. Democracy means something if people can organize to gain information, to have thoughts for that matter, to make plans, to enter into the political system in some active way, to put forth programs and so on. If organizations of that kind exist, then democracy can exist too. Otherwise it's a matter of pushing a lever every couple of years; it's like having the choice between Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola.”

PeopleIfsWayYearsKindMeanMatterPoliticalChoicesIndividualDemocracyPlansEconomicInformationCoupleHeroGainsProgramOrganizationActivePushingHeroicIsolatedOrganizePolitical SystemsLeversEconomic PowerCoca ColaPepsi
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time.”

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Book:How the World Works
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“From a comparative perspective, the United States is unusual if not unique in the lack of restraints on freedom of expression. It is also unusual in the range and effectiveness of methods employed to restrain freedom of thought... Where the voice of the people is heard, elite groups must insure their voice says the right things.”

PeopleIfsStatesVoiceUnitedLibertyUnited StatesHeardGroupsExpressionPerspectiveUniqueMethodRangeRight ThingUnusualElitesRestraintEmployedEffectivenessFreedom Of ThoughtFreedom Of Expression
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Why does everyone take for granted that we don't learn to grow arms, but rather, are designed to grow arms? Similarly, we should conclude that in the case of the development of moral systems; there's a biological endowment which in effect requires us to develop a system of moral judgment and a theory of justice, if you like, that in fact has detailed applicability over an enormous range.”

IfsShouldDoeFactsGrowsJusticeMoralCasesEffectsTheoryArmsDevelopmentJudgmentEthicsEnormousGrantedRangeEndowmentMoral Judgment
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“We do not for example say that the person has a perfect knowledge of some language L similar to English but still different from it. What we say is that the child or foreigner has a 'partial knowledge of English' or is 'on his or her way' towards acquiring knowledge of English, and if they reach this goal, they will then know English.”

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Book:Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use
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“Virtually all informed observers agree that a fair and equitable resolution of the plight of the Palestinians would considerably weaken the anger and hatred of Israel and the US in the Arab and Muslim worlds - and far beyond, as international polls reveal. Such an agreement is surely within reach, if the US and Israel depart from their long-standing rejectionism.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“One of the questions asked in that study was, How many Vietnamese casualties would you estimate that there were during the Vietnam war? The average response on the part of Americans today is about 100,000. The official figure is about two million. The actual figure is probably three to four million. The people who conducted the study raised an appropriate question: What would we think about German political culture if, when you asked people today how many Jews died in the Holocaust, they estimated about 300,000? What would that tell us about German political culture?”

PeopleIfsThinkingTwoWarTodayPoliticalCultureThreeMillionsStudyFourFiguresDiedResponseRaisedAverageJewOfficialsAppropriateVietnamHolocaustVietnam WarCasualtiesVietnameseQuestions AskedPolitical Culture
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“There is no reason to accept the doctrines crafted to sustain power and privilege, or to believe that we are constrained by mysterious and unknown social laws. These are simply decisions made within institutions that are subject to human will and that must face the test of legitimacy. And if they do not meet the test, they can be replaced by other institutions that are more free and more just, as has happened often in the past.”

IfsBelieveHumansMadeReasonPastFacesLawSocialDecisionAcceptingHappenedMysterySubjectsAcceptanceTestsInstitutionsPrivilegeDoctrineMysteriousNo ReasonReplacedLegitimacyDecisions MadeHuman Will
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Prophet just means intellectual. They were people giving geopolitical analysis, moral lessons, that sort of thing. We call them intellectuals today. There were the people we honor as prophets, there were the people we condemn as false prophets. But if you look at the biblical record, at the time, it was the other way around. The flatterers of the Court of King Ahab were the ones who were honored. The ones we call prophets were driven into the desert and imprisoned.”

PeopleIfsWayGivingLooksMeanTodayMoralRecordsKingsHonorLessonsIntellectualCourtDrivenDesertAnalysisProphetBiblicalHonoredFlattererGeopoliticalFalse ProphetsAhabMoral Lessons
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“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.”

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Book:Chomsky on Mis-Education
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“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?”

IfsWantKindHappensDemocracyWorstFineAmountDemocraticLibertarianArguingTyrannyBotherRecallsAnarchismAdvocacyUltrasWhy Bother
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“One of the truths about the world is that there are two superpowers, one a huge power which happens to have its boot on your neck; another, a smaller power which happens to have its boot on other people's necks. I think that anyone in the Third World would be making a grave error if they succumbed to illusions about these matters”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Corporations are totalitarian institutions. Board of directors at the top of managers give orders, everyone follows orders..... At the very bottom of command, if you are lucky you can rent yourself to it and get a job , and if you are sufficiently propagandized you may even buy some of the junk they produce and so on.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Anarchism, in my view, is an expression of the idea that the burden of proof is always on those who argue that authority and domination are necessary. They have to demonstrate, with powerful argument, that that conclusion is correct. If they cannot, then the institutions they defend should be considered illegitimate. How one should react to illegitimate authority depends on circumstances and conditions: there are no formulas.”

IfsShouldIdeasViewsPowerfulConditionsExpressionDependsCircumstancesAuthorityArgumentInstitutionsBurdenProofArguingConclusionFormulasDominationAnarchismAnarchistBurden Of Proof
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are, in principle, under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist, that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level. [...] Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I am opposed to economic fascism. I think that until the major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.”

IfsThinkingPoliticalTermCommunityLevelsPrinciplesDemocracyEconomicIndustryMajorsCapitalismInstitutionsObedienceCorporationsFascismStrictPointlessFascistsParticipants
Author:Noam Chomsky
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