"So pretty soon it will be April 15th, and the people in your neighborhood are going to have to send in their income taxes. The way they’re going to look at it, and the way they’ve been trained to look at it is that there is some alien force, like maybe from Mars, that is stealing our hard earned money from us and giving it to the government. Okay, well, that would be true in a totalitarian state, but if you had a democratic society you’d look at it the other way around You’d say "great, it's April 15th, we’re all going to contribute to implement the plans that we jointly decided on for the benefit of all of us." But that idea is even more frightening than Social Security. It means that we would have a functioning democracy, and no center of concentrated power is ever going to want that, for perfectly obvious reasons. So yes there are efforts, and pretty successful efforts to get people to fear the government as their enemy, not to regard it as the collective population acting in terms of common goals that we’ve decided on which would be what have to happen in a democracy."
This is my first Noam Chomsky post on this blog. Chomsky has been an heroic figure to me for many years. In fact i look out for his perspective often. This bit i found on
Wikinews with a few other recent choice clips from an interview he did on March 13th
here.
such clarity from this man
ReplyDeleteNoam Chomsky, the so called Anarchists, believes in the tyranny of the many? Gee, I can see it now, all sorts of things would be illegal, for the common good of course. Chomsky is a socialist moron. Tyranny is tyranny. True liberty does not come from taxes or social security. If you can't support yourself whats the point of being alive? All you are is a drain on society, a burden. Chomsky lives in a dream world.
ReplyDelete"if you can't support yourself what's the point of being alive?"
DeleteLet this be a lesson to you slacker infants and children. Get a job or get busy dying. That goes the same for the infirm, the elderly, the severely disabled. How could your life possibly have any value if you get help from others. It's not like we're mammals or highly social animals or anything.
who's the moron?
ReplyDeleteI like to live in a world where we can dream.
free thinker huh?
keep living, keep reading...
Chomsky is great when it comes to dreaming. That is where his world exists. Un-inhibited, nobody questions that. In reality his dream would be a totalitarian nightmare. Democratic majorities are no better than Kings, queens, parliaments, tribuns, etc. I think Lysander Spooner put it best:
ReplyDelete"The principle that the majority have a right to rule the minority, practically resolves all government into a mere contest between two bodies of men, as to which of them shall be masters, and which of them slaves; a contest, that -- however bloody -- can, in the nature of things, never be finally closed, so long as man refuses to be a slave."~Lysander Spooner
And taxes, justified for things such as taking care of the poor, are not voluntary, and are not just. All people have a choice to either voluntarily help others or not. If they choose not to, so what. Chomsky is an egalitarian, not a libertarian socialist, not an anarchist, does not believe in voluntary interaction, and has no original solution to the problems he bitches about. So no he isn't a moron, but he is kind of off. Great stuff on language though.
Again Lysander Spooner had it right:
"The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit ... Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. ... He does not keep "protecting" you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that."
Honestly if you want to learn more about anarchism, you should read some of Lysander Spooners stuff. He was not an egalitarian as the socialists like to claim, and he was not a capitalist either. He was just an individualist, who believed in self employment as a means to self sufficiency. He didn't worship the idea of communes. So long as they were voluntary he wouldn't have minded them.
I'm with you on this Glen(and Noam). It seems people forget that civilization is founded on the idea of helping others, of looking out for others and we would ourselves. We need to keep dreaming, and acting, in order to make things better. A lot of people get caught up in thinking that making a real change isn't possible, that we have to put up with certain aspects of the system. I don't think so. If the dream is there, people have shown again and again that we're very capable of achieving it. I think a real change in this country is going to have to come from the realization that everyone is connected. Other's happiness and well being is also our own. This might seem very basic, but it's very important. If we take care of each other, if we truly care about each other, then a lot of the issues people spend so much time and energy discussing would no longer even be issues. Greed is at the base of many of our problems, and I think deep down most of us feel this. And I think it's important to note that government has become a bad word in our society, just as the word socialist, communist, etc.. government can do good things, just as it can do bad. Isn't it important that (if you have a central government) it works for the people? As long as we have a powerful government, I think it's important to make it work for and to reflect the people it's supposed to represent.
ReplyDeletenice comment, thanks for the thoughtful words.
ReplyDeletethank you for this blog, and of course your work. Your photographs have meant a lot to me over the years. I'm especially excited about the new Fugazi book. I ran out and got it right away. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThat's the greatest blog name ever. Don't know Chomsky well. Just got into Paul last year. What I'm seeing is posts that cast Chomsky as someone who thinks the state should control everything and Paul as someone who thinks the state has no place in our lives. I would say both of those claims would be false. I think the state has to be there to protect our rights and we have to be there for each other. Often it seems Paul is portrayed as a politician who's not concerned with people's welfare beyond keeping the state out of our privacy and our wallets (those who have anything in them). I think the ideas of solidarity and a government that does not use force except for protecting rights have to coexist for a healthy society. Thing is, we are SOOOO fucked up right now that it's going to hurt to get there. I personally believe that it shouldn't be the responsibility of government to create and run social programs. I think that is our responsibility as people and as a society and that doing it through government is a needless step that only causes the opportunity for abuse and mismanagement. The best way to feed a hungry person is to give them something to eat. Simple and direct. The action has been completed.
ReplyDeleteChomsky hates nothing more than individual rights.
ReplyDeletereally? you sure about that? shame you write something about which you know nothing about. waste of everyone's time.
DeleteIt's really too bad we look at Noam Chomsky vs Ron Paul or Left Anarchism vs Right Anarchism. I believe it you listen carefully to Noam, you will see the Democracy he is talking about is Voluntary! A bunch of people get together and decide they are going to work together to make a better life and make decisions on a majority basis. There could literally be thousands of voluntary socialist governments to pick from.. A Right Anarchist - Ron Pauler - Ayn Rander may choose to be more independent and that would be ok too. Of course, you often see Libertarians coming together (very socialist of them) to support Ron Paul or Gary Johnson or similar.
ReplyDeleteSummary: Voluntary is the KEY. Working together or be Independant is a choice, a choice which could change dozens of times or the lifetime!