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Quote by Noam Chomsky

“The people we call the prophets I think are the earliest dissident intellectuals, and they're treated like most dissident intellectuals - very badly. They're imprisoned, driven into the desert. King Ahab, the epitome of evil in the Bible, condemned Elijah as a "hater of Israel." This is the first self-hating Jew, the origin of the term. It goes right up to the present. That's the history of intellectuals.”

Quote by Noam Chomsky

Author

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. more

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“Most of intellectuals are false prophets, flatterers of the court. The real prophets are the exception and treated badly. How badly they're treated depends on the society. Like in Eastern Europe, they were treated very badly. In Latin America, they were slaughtered.”

Real America Depends Europe Court Treated Prophet Exception Latin Eastern Latin America Eastern Europe Flatterer False Prophets

Author:Noam Chomsky

“There has to be spiritual transformation among the masses, who have to be willing to recognize that their oppression is not a law of nature. That's what Latin American bishops were doing when they formed base communities. They were trying to get peasants to recognize that you can take your fate into your own hands. That's what the civil-rights movement did here. That's what the women's movement did.”

“America has always been the richest and most secure, and sometimes the most dangerous country in the world. In the early years, the danger was to everybody near us, slaves, Native Americans, Mexicans. It finally expanded in 1898 to the Caribbean, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines.”

World Years Country Sometimes America Dangerous Danger Slave Secure Native Native American Hawaii Cuba Philippines Caribbean Puerto Rico Rico

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Actually, the phrase "national security" is barely used until the 1930s. And there's a reason. By then, the United States was beginning to become global. Before that the United States had been mostly a regional power - Britain was the biggest global power. After the Second World War, national security is everywhere, because we basically owned the world, so our security is threatened everywhere. Not just on our borders, but everywhere - so you have to have a thousand military bases around the world for "defense."”

“You never really saw the racism in Europe in the past because it was so homogeneous. When everyone is blonde and blue-eyed, you don't see racism. But as soon as there was the beginnings of immigration, it just came out very dramatically.”

Past Saws Racism Europe Blue Immigration Blonde Homogeneous Blue Eyed

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Honduras has become a murder capital of the world; there's horrible atrocities, infanticide, murder of women is way up, and people are fleeing in desperation. They come to the border, and we put them in trucks and send them back to Mexico to die. And here people are scared of illegal immigrants - that's what we're doing. It's pretty shocking.”

People World Way Dies Murder Scared Horrible Borders Immigrants Illegal Mexico Desperation Shocking Truck Atrocities Fleeing Illegal Immigrants Infanticide Honduras

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Every great power, every aggressive power has always regarded itself as exceptional and as doing things only for the most moral ends.”

Ends Moral Aggressive Exceptional Great Power

Author:Noam Chomsky

“What matters is the way we Americans think about ourselves. We think about ourselves as incapable of committing crimes. Everything we do, we make a lot of errors, you know, you can't help it. Mistakes all over the place, but out of naïveté or, you know, misplaced kindness or something like that.”

Thinking Knows Way Matter Helping Mistake Kindness Crime Errors What Matters Incapable Misplaced Vets Committing Crimes

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The educational system is pretty much geared to passing the next exam. You're educated to pass tests and not to understand.”

Next Tests Educational Passing Passings Educated Exam Educational System

Author:Noam Chomsky

“It's been a real success - one of the great business successes in the United States - to break down organization, to separate people too: it's part of consumerism. If you can drive people toward individual consumption, that's the highest goal in life. And furthermore, drive them into debt so they're trapped. You don't have to worry about a democracy function because people are trapped and they're alone.”