A Conversation With Chomsky

April 30, 2015 Brian K. Noe

Isabelle Kumar of Euronews interviews Noam Chomsky on a range of topics. On the subject of Greece’s debt (and that of Portugal and Spain and others) this is what he said.

Who incurred this debt? And who is the debt owed to? In part, the debt was incurred by dictators. So in Greece it was the fascist dictatorship, which the US supported, that incurred a large part of the debt. The debt I think was more brutal than the dictatorship, and that’s what’s called in international law, “odious debt” which need not be paid, and that’s a principal introduced into international law by the United States, when it was in their interest to do so. Much of the rest of the debt, what is called payments to Greece are in fact payments to banks, German and French banks, which had decided to make extremely risky loans with not very high interest and are now being faced with the fact that they can’t be paid back.

Read the Transcript: Chomsky says US is world’s biggest terrorist | euronews, the global conversation

Here’s the video.

Chomsky Reclaims MLK

January 18, 2015 Brian K. Noe

Professor Noam Chomsky explains why Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

From the Atlanta Blackstar.

A Reminder from Chomsky: It’s the Institutions that Matter

April 23, 2014 Brian K. Noe

Tim Donovan has an interesting piece over on Salon encouraging the Left to keep our focus where it matters.

He includes this quote from Noam Chomsky.

When you look at a corporation, just like when you look at a slave owner, you want to distinguish between the institution and the individual. So slavery, for example, or other forms of tyranny, are inherently monstrous. The individuals participating in them may be the nicest guys you can imagine. Benevolent, friendly, nice to the children, even nice to their slaves. Caring about other people. I mean, as individuals they may be anything, but in their institutional role, they’re monsters, because the institution is monstrous.

Read the article: Noam Chomsky was right: Why the Koch brothers are obscuring the real enemy – Salon.com.

Pure Savagery

January 10, 2014 Brian K. Noe

Professor Chomsky speaks on American politics’ descent into madness.

Chomsky: Rebellion or New Dark Age?

May 9, 2012 Brian K. Noe

If the bonds and associations established by the Occupy movement can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead – because victory won’t come quickly – it could prove a significant moment in American history.

Read More: Noam Chomsky, A Rebellious World or a New Dark Age? [TomDispatch]

Chomsky on Occupy and an Empire in Decline

April 24, 2012 Brian K. Noe

Noam Chomsky on America’s Declining Empire, Occupy and the Arab Spring. [AlterNet] – Last year, the Occupy Movement rose up spontaneously in cities and towns across the country, radically shifted the discourse and rattled the economic elite with its defiant populism. It was, according to Noam Chomsky, “the first major public response to thirty years of class war.”

Noam Chomsky: Behind the Attack on Public Education

April 6, 2012 Brian K. Noe

Chomsky: How the Young Are Indoctrinated to Obey. [AlterNet] – Forty years ago there was deep concern that the population was breaking free of apathy and obedience. Since then, many measures have been taken to restore discipline. Read more.

Sunday Morning Quote

December 18, 2011 Brian K. Noe

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.

– Noam Chomsky

From a Lecture at the University of Wisconsin on 15 March 1989