chomsky
truth and power
Submitted by antarchi on July 4, 2010 - 18:38I don't agree with the slogan [speak truth to power]. First of all, you don't have to speak truth to power, because they know it already. And secondly, you don't speak truth to anybody, that's too arrogant. What you do is join with people and try to find the truth, so you listen to them and tell them what you think and so on, and you try to encourage people to think for themselves.
The ones you are concerned with are the victims, not the powerful, so the slogan ought to be to engage with the powerless and help them and help yourself to find the truth. It's not an easy slogan to formulate in five words, but I think it's the right one.
hamas offered to renew ceasefire
Submitted by antarchi on June 3, 2010 - 20:01If Israel were interested in stopping Hamas rockets it knows exactly how to proceed: accept Hamas offers for a cease-fire. In June 2008, Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement. The Israeli government formally acknowledges that until Israel broke the agreeement on November 4, invading Gaza and killing half a dozen Hamas activists, Hamas did not fire a single rocket. Hamas offered to renew the cease-fire. The Israeli cabinet considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to launch its murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead on December 27. Evidently, there is no justification for the use of force "in self-defense" unless peaceful means have been exhausted. In this case they were not even tried, although—or perhaps because—there was every reason to suppose that they would succeed. Operation Cast Lead is therefore sheer criminal aggression, with no credible pretext...
'nato would not move to the east'
Submitted by antarchi on September 14, 2008 - 13:23As the USSR collapsed, Mikhail Gorbachev made a concession that was astonishing in the light of recent history and strategic realities: he agreed to allow a united Germany to join a hostile military alliance. This “stunning concession” was hailed by Western media, NATO, and President Bush I, who called it a demonstration of “statesmanship ... in the best interests of all countries of Europe, including the Soviet Union.”
an entirely predictable reaction
Submitted by antarchi on March 22, 2008 - 22:55On March 27, US-NATO Commanding General Wesley Clark announced that it was 'entirely predictable' that Serb terror and violence would intensify after the NATO bombing. Shortly after, Clark reported again that he was not surprised by the sharp escalation of Serb terror after the bombing: 'the military authorities fully anticipated the vicious approach that Milosevic would adopt, as well as the terrible efficiency with which he would carry it out'.
persuasion, education and trenches
Submitted by antarchi on May 4, 2007 - 14:58I don't try to persuade people, at least not consciously. Maybe I do. If so, its a mistake. The right way to do things is not to try to persuade people you're right, but to challenge them to think it through for themselves. Noam Chomsky
Hard for an 'educator' to accept... but he is probably right. You never persuade people by trying to persuade them. If they already want to believe it, they will, without any arguments. If they don't want to or are neutral, trying to persuade them will only entrench them even more firmly in any other trench around the world, but not the one you've specially dug for them.
'How can X think that s/he can control which trench I sit in?'
'I will show X (or myself?) that only I select my own trench'
But this has been pointed out by millions before... In order to persuade an unwilling child to do something, show them you don't care whether they do it or not. Or better still: show them you WANT them to do what they really want to do. And then they're more likely to want to do what they didn't want to do (and you did).
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efficient tools
Submitted by antarchi on December 24, 2007 - 01:45One of the features of contemporary economic systems is what's called flexibility in labour markets. That's considered a wonderful thing. Labour markets are supposed to be flexible. It's a fancy way of saying you don't know when you go to sleep at night whether you have a job tomorrow morning. And that contributes to efficiency. Anybody who's taken an economics course understands that you get more efficiency if people have no security. They don't know what's going to happen to them tomorrow. And then you can move them around, it's just like a tool.
If you had to worry about whether the tool was going to be happy it would be inefficient. If the tool can be treated just like a piece of metal you use if if you want, you throw it away if you don't want it...
The Corporation (interview)
