Noam Chomsky Quotes About Debate

• The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

  Noam Chomsky

  Smart, Thinking, Views

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.234, Soft Skull Press

• The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.

  Noam Chomsky

  Smart, Passivity Is, People

  Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.234, Soft Skull Press

• The one state/two state debate is irrelevant as Israel and the US consolidate Greater Israel.

  Noam Chomsky

  Israel, Two, Debate

• There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information - the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.

  Noam Chomsky

  Information, May, Assumption

  Noam Chomsky (2016). “Who Rules the World?”, p.39, Metropolitan Books

• Whoever sets the agenda controls the outcome of the debate

  Noam Chomsky

  Agendas, Outcomes, Debate

• Putting it in plain terms, the general public must be reduced to its traditional apathy and obedience, and driven from the arena of political debate and action, if democracy is to survive.

  Noam Chomsky

  Political, Democracy, Apathy

  Noam Chomsky (1989). “Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies”, p.3, Pluto Press

• But on the other hand, in discussion and debate concerning social issues or American foreign policy, Vietnam or the Middle East, for example, the issue is constantly raised, often with considerable venom. I've repeatedly been challenged on grounds of credentials, or asked, what special training do you have that entitles you to speak of these matters. The assumption is that people like me, who are outsiders from a professional viewpoint, are not entitled to speak on such things.

  Noam Chomsky

  Hands, Issues, People

• To achieve respectability, to be admitted to the debate, they must accept without question or inquiry the fundamental doctrine that the state is benevolent, governed by the loftiest intentions, adopting a defensive stance, not an actor in world affairs but only reacting to the crimes of others...If even the harshest of critics tacitly adopt these premises, then the ordinary person may ask, who am I to disagree?

  Noam Chomsky

  Ordinary, Doctrine, Inquiry

• There is either a crisis or a return to the norm of stagnation. One view is the norm is stagnation and occasionally you get out of it. The other is that the norm is growth and occasionally you can get into stagnation. You can debate that but it's a period of close to global stagnation.

  Noam Chomsky

  Views, Growth, Return

  "Noam Chomsky on America's Economic Suicide". Interview with Laura Flanders / GRITtv, www.alternet.org. May 4, 2012.

• Suppose that I see a hungry child in the street, and I am able to offer the child some food. Am I morally culpable if I refuse to do so? Am I morally culpable if I choose not to do what I easily can about the fact that 1000 children die every hour from easily preventable disease, according to UNICEF? Or the fact that the government of my own "free and open society" is engaged in monstrous crimes that can easily be mitigated or terminated? Is it even possible to debate these questions?

  Noam Chomsky

  Children, Government, Disease

  Source: www.publicanthropology.org

• In the United States, the day when you pay your taxes is a day of mourning because this alien force - the government - is coming to rob you of your hard-earned money. That's the general attitude, and it's a tremendous victory for the opponents of democracy, and, of course, any privileged sector is going to hate democracy. You can see it in the healthcare debate.

  Noam Chomsky

  Attitude, Hate, Government

  Source: www.iww.org

• ... the media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly.

  Noam Chomsky

  Media, Supportive, Analysis

  Noam Chomsky (1989). “Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies”, p.10, Pluto Press

• In the primary debates for the 2016 election, every single Republican candidate was a climate change denier, with one exception, John Kasich - the "rational moderate" - who said it may be happening but we shouldn't do anything about it. For a long time, the media have downplayed the issue.

  Noam Chomsky

  Media, Issues, Long

  "Global Warming and the Future of Humanity: An Interview With Noam Chomsky and Graciela Chichilnisky". Interview with C.J. Polychroniou, www.truth-out.org. September 17, 2016.

• [James] Madison pointed out in the discussion of the constitutional debates - the constitutional convention - that democracy would be a danger. He used England of course as the model and said suppose that in England everyone had the free right to vote; the poor, the propertyless - who are the great majority - would use their voting power to take away the rights of property owners to carry out what we would call land reform.

  Noam Chomsky

  Rights, Land, Voting

  Source: chomsky.info

• Take a look at the current debates in Washington, and of course, everything in the media. Only one issue is discussed: the deficit - the least significant issue, but the most significant issue for the banks. The big problem, joblessness, is barely discussed, even though that's what the public wants, as polls clearly show. That's even what the business press supports, but the financial institutions are so powerful that the only issue is the deficit, and this runs right through the intellectual culture.

  Noam Chomsky

  Running, Powerful, Support

  Source: www.truth-out.org

You May Also Like:

Aviva Chomsky

Howard Zinn

Michel Gondry

Michel Foucault

Slavoj Žižek

Ferdinand de Saussure

B. F. Skinner