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Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky Quotes

Linguist

Noam Chomsky, born on December 7, 1928, is a renowned linguist from the United States. His research in generative grammar and transformational grammar has had a profound impact on modern linguistics. Chomsky's academic achievements extend beyond linguistics, as he is also an active political commentator and philosopher, known for his unique perspective and profound insights.

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Famous Noam Chomsky Quotes

“Both political parties have moved to the right during the neoliberal period. Today’s New Democrats are pretty much what used to be called “moderate Republicans.” The “political revolution” that Bernie Sanders called for, rightly, would not have greatly surprised Dwight Eisenhower. The fate of the minimum wage illustrates what has been happening. Through the periods of high and egalitarian growth in the ‘50s and ‘60s, the minimum wage—which sets a floor for other wages—tracked productivity. That ended with the onset of neoliberal doctrine. Since then, the minimum wage has stagnated (in real value). Had it continued as before, it would probably be close to $20 per hour. Today, it is considered a political revolution to raise it to $15.”

“Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny have created an important political radio show that balances humor and unreported news. At a time when media conglomerates dominate the airwaves, independent media like Citizen Radio is vital to national discourse.”

Important Shows Political Media Balance Citizens News Independent Radio Discourse Jamie Allison Independent Media

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In our society, real power does not happen to lie in the political system, it lies in the private economy: that’s where the decisions are made about what’s produced, how much is produced, what’s consumed, where investment takes place, who has jobs, who controls the resources, and so on and so forth. And as long as that remains the case, changes inside the political system can make some difference-I don’t want to say it’s zero-but the differences are going to be very slight.”

Want Long Doe Made Real Happens Jobs Political Lying Differences Decision Cases Economy Resources Remains Investment Our Society Zero Consumed Political Systems Real Power

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Compare mathematics and the political sciences - it's quite striking. In mathematics, in physics, people are concerned with what you say, not with your certification. But in order to speak about social reality, you must have the proper credentials, particularly if you depart from the accepted framework of thinking. Generally speaking, it seems fair to say that the richer the intellectual substance of a field, the less there is a concern for credentials, and the greater is the concern for content.”

Source: The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature

“Even in a largely depoliticized society such as the United States, with no political parties or opposition press beyond the narrow spectrum of the business-dominated consensus, it is possible for populate action to have a significant impact on policy, though indirectly. That was an important lesson for the Indochina Wars.”

Important War States Action Political United Party United States Policy Lessons Impact Presses Significant Opposition Political Parties Consensus Spectrum Important Lessons Indochina

Author:Noam Chomsky

“One of the best predictors of policy around is Thomas Ferguson's investment theory of politics, as he calls it - very outstanding political economist - which essentially - I mean, to say it in a sentence, he describes elections as occasions in which groups of investors coalesce and invest to control the state.”

Mean States Political Groups Policy Theory Election Investment Sentences Occasions Investors Economist Outstanding Ferguson

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.”

Thinking Political Community Democracy Economic Majors Institutions Fascism Pointless Participants

Book:Language and Politics

Source: Language and Politics

“During the 1960s, large groups of people who are normally passive and apathetic began to try to enter the political arena to press their demands.... The naive might call that democracy, but that's because they don't understand. The sophisticated understand that that's the crisis of democracy.”

People Trying Might Political Democracy Groups Demand Crisis Presses Passive Sophisticated Arena Naive 1960s Apathetic Large Groups

Author:Noam Chomsky

“In the United States, the political system is a very marginal affair. There are two parties, so-called, but they're really factions of the same party, the Business Party.”

Two States Political United Party United States Affair Political Systems Factions

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Putting it in plain terms, the general public must be reduced to its traditional apathy and obedience, and driven from the arena of political debate and action, if democracy is to survive.”

Ifs Action Political Term Democracy Driven Debate Traditional Obedience Apathy Arena General Public Political Debates

Book:Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies

Source: Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies

“Up until the First World War, when people turned anti-German, Germany had been described by American political scientists as the model of democracy.”

People World Firsts War Political Democracy Models Scientist War Of The Worlds Germany First World War

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Ever since I've had any political awareness, I've felt either alone or part of a tiny minority.”

Political Felt Awareness Tiny Minorities Political Awareness

Author:Noam Chomsky

“American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a lot to answer for here. There's been a drift toward very fragmenting tendencies among left groups, toward this sort of identity politics.”

Facts Seems Political Left Answers Groups Identity Organization Tendencies League American Society Bowling Identity Politics

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The Republican Party has pretty much abandoned any pretense of being a traditional political party. It's in lockstep obedience to the very rich, the super rich and the corporate sector. They can't get votes that way so they have to mobilize a different constituency. It's always been there, but it's rarely been mobilized politically. They call it the religious right, but basically it's the extreme religious population.”

Way Different Political Religious Party Rich Republican Vote Population Extremes Traditional Obedience Corporate Abandoned Republican Party Political Parties Pretense

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.”

Giving Political Wealth Increase Concentration Cycles Yield Legislation Political Power Accelerate Concentration Of Wealth

Book:Occupy

Source: Occupy

“The time to be political is not when you have parties and carnivals, it's kind of a show, the election. It affects something but not that much. And focusing all the attention on it is I think a mistake.”

Thinking Kind Shows Political Party Attention Mistake Election Carnivals

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Look, the United States doesn't have political parties. In other countries, take say Europe, you can be an active member of the political party. Here, the only thing in a political party is gearing to elections, not the other things you do. So it's basically, a way of making people passive, submissive objects.”

People Way Looks Country States Political United Party United States Objects Members Europe Election Active Other Countries Passive Political Parties Submissive

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There have been repeated cases when nuclear war came ominously close, often a result of malfunctioning of early-warning systems and other accidents, sometimes [as a result of] highly adventurist acts of political leaders.”

Has Beens War Sometimes Political Results Leader Cases Accidents Nuclear Warning Nuclear War Political Leaders

Author:Noam Chomsky

“It is an astonishing fact about the current era that in the most powerful country in world history, with a high level of education and privilege, one of the two political parties virtually denies the well-established facts about anthropogenic climate change.”

“My own feeling is that a corporation has no right to have a political or social influence.”

Feelings Political Social My Own Influence Corporations

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There are questions as to whether it should even exist. Who should corporations be responsive to, the management of a corporation? Theoretically they are responsive to the shareholders, but I why not to the so - called stakeholders, the work force and the community? Nothing in economic theory opposes that. Those are social and political decisions.”

Should Political Force Social Community Decision Economic Theory Management Corporations Why Not Shareholders Economic Theory Stakeholder Political Decisions

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Groupings of people that get together, think things through, come out to plan and so on, like unions or true political organizations, they've disintegrated. And people tend to be atomized - you get down to a society based on social units based on an atom - an atomic element - which is a person and their computer. Not a society that is going to be able to function freely and democratically. The tendency is there; it doesn't have to be, but its something to worry about.”

People Thinking Persons Able Together Political Social Worry Plans Elements Computer Organization Function Unions Tendencies Atoms Units Get Together

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I think the press, by and large, is what we call "liberal". But of course what we call "liberal" means well to the right. "Liberal" means the "guardians of the gates". So the New York Times is "liberal" by, what's called, the standards of political discourse, New York Times is liberal, CBS is liberal. I don't disagree. I think they're moderately critical at the fringes. They're not totally subordinate to power, but they are very strict in how far you can go. And in fact, their liberalism serves an extremely important function in supporting power.”

“If you take an economics or a political science course, you're taught that humans are supposed to be rational wealth accumulators, each acting as an individual to maximize his own wealth in the market.”

Ifs Humans Political Courses Individual Wealth Acting Taught Economics Rational Supposed To Be Political Science

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Finally Irish were accepted into society and became part of the political system, and there were Kennedys, and so on. But the same is true about other waves of immigrants, like the Jews in the 1950s.”

Political Wave Jew Accepted Immigrants Political Systems

Author:Noam Chomsky

“[Camillo] Berneri proposed that the anarchists should link up with the effort of Northern Africa to overthrow the Spanish government, carry out land reform, attract the base of the Moorish army, and see if they could undermine [Francisco] Franco's army through political warfare in Northern Africa combined with guerrilla warfare in Spain. Historians laughed at that, but I don't think they should have. This was the kind of war that might have succeeded in stopping Spanish fascism.”

“William R. Polk discusses the Spanish guerrilla war against Napoleon [ Bonaparte] and other cases where the conflict turns into a political war, and the invader, who usually has overwhelming power, loses because they can't fight the political war.”

War Political Turns Fighting Loses Cases Conflict Overwhelming Invaders Guerrillas Bonaparte

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There could be an independent labor-based party, which might over time become an important force the way the Labor Party did in England. To all of these things there are plenty of barriers, in the culture and in the social and political institutions, the concentration of economic power. But these are not insuperable barriers, I think. They can be overcome. And it is urgent that this be done, because there are really incredible problems that are simply not being addressed.”

“Work can be undertaken to create an authentic independent political party, a real party, based on popular participation from the ground up, not a top-down candidate producing organization like the two official parties, working from school boards to state legislatures and beyond. Not easy in the regressive U.S. political system, but not impossible.”

“Major efforts have to be undertaken to bring the general public to understand the real reasons for their plight, and the possibilities for radical social and political change to construct meaningful popular control of all institutions - in communities, in the workplace, in the larger society, and on to the international order.”

Real Reason Political Order Social Community Effort Possibility Majors Institutions International Meaningful Radical Workplace Constructs Plight General Public Political Change

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The tendencies are considerably weaker in the natural sciences, which, for the past several centuries, have survived and flourished through such constant challenge, and therefore, at best, seek to encourage it. Serving the status quo in political and socioeconomic realms is a different matter.”

Different Matter Past Political Natural Challenges Century Constant Tendencies Realms Serving Survived Status Quo Natural Science

Author:Noam Chomsky

“It is familiar to mainstream academic scholarship. One very prominent political scientist, in his standard text American Politics 20 years ago, observes that "The architects of power in the United States must create a force that can be felt but not seen."”

Years States Political Force Felt United United States Standards Years Ago Scientist Familiar Architect Academic Mainstream American Politics Scholarship Prominent

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The reason I am a political radical is that I work on syntax. If I worked on semantics (which in fact I do), I'd be a good Thatcherite.”

Ifs Reason Facts Political Radical Syntax Semantics

Author:Noam Chomsky

“No sane human being devotes 100% of his or her life to political activism.”

Humans Political Human Beings Activism Sane Political Activism

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I have written occasionally on links between my scientific work and political thinking, but not much, because the links seem to me abstract and speculative.”

Thinking Seems Political Written Abstract Links Political Thinking

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Take the US. Women were not even able to vote until 90 ago, at about the same time they gained the right in Afghanistan. Rights of former slaves were very limited until the 1960s, and in some ways still are. In these and other domains there has been progress in democracy, though still seriously flawed. In other dimensions - the control of concentrated wealth over the political process, for example, things have gotten much worse in recent years. And there is much more, in both directions.”

Way Years Has Beens Stills Able Political Process Wealth Democracy Rights Progress Example Vote Slave Former Dimensions Afghanistan Domain Flawed 1960s

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Like most terms of political discourse, socialism has more or less, lost its meaning. Socialism used to mean something. If you go back far enough it meant basically control of production by producers, elimination of wage labor, democratization of all spheres of life; production, commerce, education, media, workers control of factories, community control of communities, and so on. That was socialism once. But it hasn't meant that for a hundred years. Socialism meant something different.”

“As far as Bernie Sanders is concerned, he is a decent, honest person, and I supported him. What he means by socialism is New Deal Liberalism. In fact, his actual policies would not have been a great surprise to General Eisenhower. The fact that this is called a "political revolution" is a sign of how far to the right the political spectrum has shifted, mainly in the last 30 years since the neoliberal programs began to be instituted. What he was calling for was a restoration of something like New Deal Liberalism, which is a very good thing.”

“People will find some ways of identifying themselves, becoming associated with others, taking part in something. They're going to do it some way or other. If they don't have the options of participation in labor unions, political organizations that actually function, they'll find other ways. Religious fundamentalism is a classic example.”

People Ifs Way Political Religious Example Becoming Labor Organization Function Unions Classic Fundamentalism Participation Identifying Religious Fundamentalism Labor Union

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The U.S. directed the war against South Vietnam. There was a political settlement in 1954. But in the late '50's the United States organized an internal repression in South Vietnam, not using its troops, but using the local apparatus it was constructing. This was a very significant and very effective campaign of violence and terrorism against the Vietminh - which was the communist-led nationalist force that fought the French. And the Vietminh at that time was adhering to the Geneva Accords, hoping that the political settlement would work out in South Vietnam.”

“From 1962 to 1965 the US was dedicated to try to prevent the independence of South Vietnam, the reason was of course that Kennedy and Johnson knew that if any political solution was permitted in the south, the National Liberation Front would effectively come to power, so strong was its political support in comparison with the political support of the so-called South Vietnamese government.”

Ifs Trying Reason Government Political Courses Strong Support Fronts Solutions Independence South Liberation Comparison Vietnam Dedicated Johnson Vietnamese

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There's just no question that the United States was trying desperately to prevent the independence of South Vietnam and to prevent a political settlement inside South Vietnam. And in fact it went to war precisely to prevent that. It finally bombed the North in 1965 with the purpose of trying to get the North to use its influence to call off the insurgency in the South.”

Trying War States Facts Use Political Purpose United United States Influence Independence South Vietnam Settlement Insurgency

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I just went along with political activists and interested in other intellectual interests which I pursued kind of at random. I never had a real college education. I got a degree, but it was just patching together courses here and there.”

Kind Real Together Political Courses Interest College Degrees Intellectual Activist Pursued Here And There College Education

Author:Noam Chomsky

“We don't have polls from the business world, but it's pretty clear that the energy corporations in America would be quite happy to be given authorization to go back into Iran instead of leaving all that to their rivals. But the state won't allow it. And it is setting up confrontations right now, very explicitly. Part of the reason is strategic, geo-political, economic, but part of the reason is the mafia complex. They have to be punished for disobeying us.”

“Hamas is a political party and political parties don't recognize other countries.”

Country Political Party Other Countries Political Parties Hamas

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The manufacturing industry is starting to press for some kind of national healthcare. Now it's beginning to put it on the agenda. It doesn't matter if the population wants it. What 90% of the population wants would be kind of irrelevant. But if part of the concentration of corporate capital that basically runs the country - another thing we're not allowed to say but it's obvious - if part of that sector becomes in favor then the issue moves onto the political agenda.”

“The Republicans have picked that as the one thing that they want to hang on to to try to gain some political stand, so they have to destroy what they call Obamacare. This is now not all the Republicans, it's a wing of the Republican Party, which is called conservative but in fact is just deeply reactionary.”

Want Trying Facts Political Party One Thing Republican Gains Wings Conservative Republican Party Obamacare Reactionaries

Author:Noam Chomsky

“You can't get votes that way. So [the Republicans] have been compelled to mobilize a base of voters and gone to elements of the country that have always been there but were kind of marginal to the political system, for example, religious extremists.”

Way Kind Has Beens Country Political Religious Gone Example Republican Elements Vote Voters Compelled Extremist Political Systems

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Credible reports came through that Syria had used chemical weapons. Whether it's true actually is still open to question, but it's very probably true. At that point, what was at stake was what is called credibility. So if you read the political actors, political leadership, foreign policy commentary, they constantly point out accurately that US credibility was at stake, and we have to maintain US credibility. So therefore something had to be done to show you can't violate our orders.”

Ifs Stills Done Shows Political Used Order Actors Policy Weapons Reports Chemicals Stakes Foreign Policy Syria Credibility Commentary Credible Chemical Weapons Political Leadership

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The Russian ambassador at the United Nations did make some proposals for a political settlement in which Bashar Assad would be slowly eased out. The West dismissed it immediately, and we don't know if it was real, because it didn't come from the Kremlin, and it was informal. But the point is every such proposal is immediately scotched. And you just don't know if they're real.”

Real Political United Nations Proposal Settlement

Author:Noam Chomsky

About the Author

Born: December 7, 1928
Known for: Linguist
Quotes: 1825

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