Noam Chomsky: On Power And Ideology

Even Chomsky has bad hair days.

The role of concentrated power in shaping the ideological framework that dominates perception, interpretation, discussion, choice of action, all of that is too familiar to require much comment. Tonight I’d like to discuss a critically important example, but first a couple of words on one of the most perceptive analysts of this process, George Orwell. 

Orwell is famous for his searching and sardonic critique of the way thought is controlled by force under totalitarian dystopia. But much less known is his discussion of how similar outcomes are achieved in free societies. He’s speaking, of course, of England. And he wrote that although the country is quite free, nevertheless unpopular ideas can be suppressed without the use of force. Gave a couple of examples, provided a few words of explanation, which were to the point. 

One particularly pertinent comment was his observation on a quality education in the best schools, where it is instilled into you that there are certain things that it simply wouldn’t do to say - or, we may add, even to think...

Lecture given to the New School, New York, Saturday. Via Democracy Now!

And here's a Jacobin interview on Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders, Syriza and the prospects for radical change.

PS Now seems a good time to revisit Fagburn and Uncle Noam on US/Cuba.

Yanis Varoufakis: Goodbye And Thank You

"I believe in reluctant politicians. Anybody enthusiastic about political power should be disqualified from having it.'

Greece: Conventionality Belongs To Yesterday

"I don't believe in heroes or saviours, but I do believe in fighting for right... no one has the right to reduce a proud people to such a state of wretchedness and indignity.
"We have never been in such a bad place. After two and a half years of catastrophe, Greeks are on their knees. The social state has collapsed, one in two youngsters is out of work, there are people leaving en masse, the climate psychologically is one of pessimism, depression, mass suicides."
"Defeat is the battle that isn't waged. You ask me if I am afraid. I'd be afraid if we continued on this path, a path to social hell... when someone fights there is a big chance that he will win and we are fighting this to win."
"It is not between nations and peoples. On the one side there are workers and a majority of people and on the other are global capitalists, bankers, profiteers on stock exchanges, the big funds. It's a war between peoples and capitalism … and as in each war what happens on the frontline defines the battle. It will be decisive for the war elsewhere."
"[Greece] was chosen as the experiment for the enforcement of neo-liberal shock [draconian tax rises and spending cuts] and Greek people were the guinea pigs. If the experiment continues, it will be considered successful and the policies will be applied in other countries. That's why it is so important to stop the experiment. It will not just be a victory for Greece but for all of Europe."

Alexis Tsipras, leader of Greece's left-wing Syriza party, The Guardian.
Polls indicate Syriza could win the next election.
For more on all this and on the background to events in Greece and the Eurozone crisis see this section of Znet.