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Quote by Noam Chomsky

“About specific social issues, there is a great deal to say that departs very far from truism and is, accordingly, significant and controversial.”

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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“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

“There is extensive critical scholarship that provides illustrations in many areas of scholarship. I've discussed many cases myself, while also citing and often relying on academic studies that disentangle these webs of mystification woven for the general public. It's impossible to provide illustrations that would even approach accuracy, let alone carry any conviction, without going well beyond the bounds of this discussion.”

Wells Cases Study Impossible Approach Areas Bounds Conviction Critical Discussion Academic Scholarship Accuracy Woven Illustration General Public Citing

Author:Noam Chomsky

“That intellectuals, including academics, would become a "new class" of technocrats, claiming the name of science while cooperating with the powerful, was predicted by [Mikhail] Bakunin in the early days of the formation of the modern intelligentsia in the 19th century.”

Names Powerful Class Modern Century Including Formation 19th Century Cooperating New Class

Author:Noam Chomsky

“[Mikhail Bakunin] expectations were generally confirmed, including his prediction that some would seek to gain state power on the backs of popular revolution, then constructing a "Red bureaucracy" that would be one of the worst tyrannies in history, while others would recognize that power lies elsewhere and would serve as its apologists, becoming mystifies, "disablers," and managers while demanding the right to function in "technocratic isolation," in World Bank lingo.”

World States Would Be Lying Worst Revolution Becoming Expectations Gains Red Function Including Tyranny Managers Isolation Elsewhere Predictions Bureaucracy World Bank

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I would, however, question the implication that there is some novelty in this beyond modalities [of Mikhail Bakunin], which naturally change as institutions change and develop.”

Institutions Novelty Implications

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Isaiah Berlin described the intellectuals of [Mikhail] Bakunin's "Red bureaucracy" as a "secular priesthood.”

Red Secular Bureaucracy Berlin Priesthood

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Pascal in his bitter rendition of the practices of the Jesuit intellectuals he despised, including their demonstration of "the utility of interpretation," a device of manufacturing consent based on reinterpretation of sacred texts to serve wealth, power, and privilege.”

Wealth Practice Sacred Including Privilege Bitter Devices Interpretation Consent Utility Demonstration Manufacturing Despised Pascal Jesuit Sacred Texts Reinterpretation

Author:Noam Chomsky

“[Isaiah] Berlin's observation is accurate enough, and applies at home as well, and even more harshly for the reasons already mentioned: the apparatchiks and commissars could at least plead fear in extenuation.”

Wells Reason Enough Home Observation Accurate Berlin

Author:Noam Chomsky

“The beam in our own eye is harder to detect, although - or more accurately because - to detect it, and remove it, is vastly more important on elementary moral grounds, and commonly more important in terms of direct human consequences as well. Intellectuals have historically played a critical function in performing these tasks, and [Ivan] Illich is right to observe that claims to scientific expertise and special knowledge are often used as a device.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky

“Those who actually do have a valid claim to such special competence have a particular obligation to make very clear to the general public the limits of what is understood at any serious level; these limits are typically very narrow in matters of significance in human affairs.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky