Noam Chomsky Quotes About Socialism

• The Bolshevik revolution was a counter-revolution. Its first moves were to destroy and eliminate every socialist tendency that had developed in the pre-revolutionary period. Their goal was as they said; it wasn't a big secret. They regarded the Soviet Union as sort a backwater. They were orthodox Marxists, expecting a revolution in Germany. They moved toward what they themselves called "state capitalism," then they moved on to Stalinism. They called it democracy and called it socialism. The one claim was as ludicrous as the other.

  Noam Chomsky

  Moving, Goal, Secret

• As far as Bernie Sanders is concerned, he is a decent, honest person, and I supported him. What he means by socialism is New Deal Liberalism. In fact, his actual policies would not have been a great surprise to General Eisenhower. The fact that this is called a "political revolution" is a sign of how far to the right the political spectrum has shifted, mainly in the last 30 years since the neoliberal programs began to be instituted. What he was calling for was a restoration of something like New Deal Liberalism, which is a very good thing.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Political Revolution, Years

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

• The free market is 'socialism' for the rich: the public pays the costs and the rich get the benefit - markets for the poor and plenty of state protection for the rich.

  Noam Chomsky

  Cost, Benefits, Pay

• Like most terms of political discourse, socialism has more or less, lost its meaning. Socialism used to mean something. If you go back far enough it meant basically control of production by producers, elimination of wage labor, democratization of all spheres of life; production, commerce, education, media, workers control of factories, community control of communities, and so on. That was socialism once. But it hasn't meant that for a hundred years. Socialism meant something different.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Media, Years

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

• People are interested in authentic long-term, socialist goals, which is not what is usually called socialism. They should be thinking through carefully how the projected society should work, but not in extensive detail because a lot of things just have to be learned by experiment and we don't know enough to plan societies in detail by any means. But, general guidelines could be worked out and many of the specific problems can be discussed. That should just be part of people's popular consciousness. That's how a transition to socialism could take place.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Thinking, Long

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

• The most extreme types, like Murray Rothbard, are at least honest. They'd like to eliminate highway taxes because they force you to pay for a road you may never drive on. As an alternative, they suggest that if you and I want to get somewhere, we should build a road there and charge people tolls on it. Just try generalizing that. Such a society couldn't survive, and even if it could, it would be so full of terror and hate that any human being would prefer to live in hell.

  Noam Chomsky

  Hate, People, Trying

  Noam Chomsky (2011). “How the World Works”, p.217, Soft Skull Press

• In fact, what were called the socialist countries in Eastern Europe were the most anti-socialist systems in the world. Workers had more rights in the United States and England than they had in Russia, and it was somehow still called socialism.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Russia, Rights

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

• Libertarian socialism is properly to be regarded as the inheritor of the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment.

  Noam Chomsky

  Enlightenment, Libertarian, Socialism

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “The Essential Chomsky”, p.115, The New Press

• With the development of industrial capitalism, a new and unanticipated system of injustice, it is libertarian socialism that has preserved and extended the radical humanist message of the Enlightenment and the classical liberal ideals that were perverted into an ideology to sustain the emerging social order.

  Noam Chomsky

  Order, Enlightenment, Development

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “The Essential Chomsky”, p.114, The New Press

• When you read about the end of the Soviet Union, it's always about the "death of socialism." They never say "the death of democracy." But it makes about the same sense.

  Noam Chomsky

  Democracy, Unions, Socialism

• I don't really think there have been transitional periods to socialism. There have been efforts, but they have usually been destroyed by a combination of external force and internal corruption.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Effort, Socialism

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

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