Hamas is regularly described as 'Iranian-backed Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel.' One will be hard put to find something like 'democratically elected Hamas, which has long been calling for a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus'—blocked for over 30 years by the US and Israel. All true, but not a useful contribution to the Party Line, hence dispensable.
Noam ChomskyTag: democracy united-states dissent terrorism israel consensus iran 2009 israeli-palestinian-conflict hamas israel-united-states-relations gaza-war
Of course all such conclusions about appropriate actions against the rich and powerful are based on a fundamental flaw: This is us, and that is them. This crucial principle, deeply embedded in Western culture, suffices to undermine even the most precise analogy and the most impeccable reasoning.
Noam ChomskyTag: hypocrisy reasoning other israel 2009 lebanon 2006 western-world the-new-york-times 2006-lebanon-war thomas-friedman
The new crimes that the US and Israel were committing in Gaza as 2009 opened do not fit easily into any standard category—except for the category of familiarity.
Noam ChomskyTag: united-states israel 2009 war-crimes israeli-palestinian-conflict israel-united-states-relations gaza-war gaza-strip
Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian. That sparked a little light in the minds of political campaign managers: Pretend to be a religious fanatic and you can pick up a third of the vote right away. Nobody asked whether Lyndon Johnson went to church every day. Bill Clinton is probably about as religious as I am, meaning zero, but his managers made a point of making sure that every Sunday morning he was in the Baptist church singing hymns.
Noam ChomskyTag: politics christianity religion atheism united-states church fundamentalism 2008 baptism piety bill-clinton lyndon-b-johnson hymns united-states-elections-2008 jimmy-carter politics-of-the-united-states born-again-christianity political-campaigns
How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me. I mean, there are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, 'That person I see is a savage monster'; instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do. If you ask the CEO of some major corporation what he does he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving 20 hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees. But then you take a look at what the corporation does, the effect of its legal structure, the vast inequalities in pay and conditions, and you see the reality is something far different.
Noam ChomskyTag: capitalism inequality delusion corporations ceos
Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility. We live in free societies where we are not afraid of the police; we have extraordinary wealth available to us by global standards. If you have those things, then you have the kind of responsibility that a person does not have if he or she is slaving seventy hours a week to put food on the table; a responsibility at the very least to inform yourself about power. Beyond that, it is a question of whether you believe in moral certainties or not.
Noam ChomskyTag: morality wealth freedom responsibility privilege police moral-absolutism
In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. In America, the professor talks to the mechanic. They are in the same category.
Noam ChomskyTag: united-states freedom-of-speech
This Sarah Palin phenomenon is very curious. I think somebody watching us from Mars—they would think the country has gone insane.
Noam ChomskyTag: politics united-states 2008 sarah-palin mars united-states-elections-2008 mccain-campaign-2008
The times are too difficult and the crisis too severe to indulge in schadenfreude. Looking at it in perspective, the fact that there would be a financial crisis was perfectly predictable: its general nature, if not its magnitude. Markets are always inefficient.
Noam ChomskyTag: capitalism george-w-bush socialism free-market economic-stimulus-act-of-2008 financial-crisis-of-2007-2010 schadenfreude
The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.
Noam ChomskyTag: democracy capitalism neoliberalism
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