Noam Chomsky Quotes about Democracy - Page 2

If you look at US internal documents, they explain very clearly what the threat of Cuba was. So, back in the early 1960s the State Department described the threat of Cuba as Castro's successful defiance of US policy,

If you look at US internal documents, they explain very clearly what the threat of Cuba was. So, back in the early 1960s the State Department described the threat of Cuba as Castro's successful defiance of US policy, going back to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine established the US claim to dominate the Western hemisphere and Castro was successfully defying that. That's not tolerable. It is like somebody saying "let's have democracy in Greece," and we just can't tolerate that so we have to destroy the threat at its roots.

Noam Chomsky

Successful, Roots, Democracy

Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

The question in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided . . . democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured; they may well be essential to survival.

Noam Chomsky

Survival, Democracy, Essentials

"Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media". Documentary, 1992.

So yes in theory there is a kind of a formal democracy and in many ways these were achievements and an improvement over the feudal system and more advanced than anything else in the world, but nothing that we ought to call democracy.

Noam Chomsky

Achievement, Democracy, Feudal System

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

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

The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is.

Noam Chomsky

Democracy, Needs, Democratic

Noam Chomsky (2004). “Chomsky on Mis-Education”, p.17, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Democracy was regarded as entering into a crisis in the 1960s. The crisis was that large segments of the population were becoming organized and active and trying to participate in the political arena.

Noam Chomsky

Media, Political, Democracy

Noam Chomsky (2011). “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda”, p.33, Seven Stories Press

The 'corporatization of America' during the past century has been an attack on democracy.

Noam Chomsky

Past, America, Democracy

"Profit over People". Book by Noam Chomsky, 1999.

The real world of American society is one which it is very misleading to call simply a democracy. Of course, it is in a sense a democracy, but it is one in which there are enormous inequities in the distribution of power and force. For example, the entire commercial and industrial system is in principle excluded from the democratic process, including everything that goes on within it

Noam Chomsky

Real, Distribution Of Power, Democracy

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

Noam Chomsky

Real, Democracy, Election

"Chomsky on McCutcheon: ‘Let’s Forget Any Pretense of Being a Democratic Society’" by Abel Collins, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 27, 2014.

One of the most interesting reactions to come out of 1968 was in the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, which believed there was a 'crisis of democracy' from too much participation of the masses.

Noam Chomsky

Interesting, Democracy, Too Much

"Noam Chomsky on 1968". www.newstatesman.com. May 8, 2008.

A democracy barely functions under the neoliberal system.

Noam Chomsky

Democracy, Function

Source: www.truth-out.org

One of the benefits of a properly functioning democracy is minority rights and majority rule.

Noam Chomsky

Rights, Majority Rule, Democracy

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

We could not bring democracy and freedom to Vietnam at a cost acceptable to ourselves. The idea that that was what we were trying to do, is again, a tautology, it's true by definition because we were doing, and the state is noble by definition. That's called "extreme liberalism".

Noam Chomsky

Ideas, Democracy, Trying

Source: theanarchistlibrary.org

There's kind of a hidden point which isn't being brought out, and that is that it is inconceivable that the U.S. would permit democracy in the Middle East, and for a very simple reason. Just take a look at polls of Arab public opinion. They exist. You can't find them in the press, but they exist from prestigious polling agencies. Released by major institutions. And what they show is that if there was democracy in the Middle East, the entire U.S. program for domination of the Middle East would be down the tube.

Noam Chomsky

Simple, Agency, Democracy

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

Plainly elites in America don't want democracy. And why should they? Democracy is always harmful to elite interests. Almost by definition.

Noam Chomsky

America, Democracy, Definitions

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

Democracy has both expanded and declined over the years.

Noam Chomsky

Democracies Have, Years, Democracy

Source: chomsky.info

If you believe in democracy, why shouldn't you know what the government is doing?

Noam Chomsky

Believe, Government, Democracy

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

It turned out that [Bill] Clinton had authorized Texaco to illegally ship oil to the military junta [in Haiti] during a time when we were supposedly opposing the military junta and supporting democracy instead.

Noam Chomsky

Military, Oil, Democracy

Source: thehumanist.com

We could not bring democracy to South Vietnam at a cost that we were willing to accept. So it was a disaster. That' is the left extreme.

Noam Chomsky

Democracy, Cost, Vietnam

Source: www.counterpunch.org

Stock ownership in the US is very highly concentrated. [Shareholder actions are] something, but it's like the old Communist Party in the USSR, it would be nice to see more protest inside the Communist Party but it's not democracy. It's not going to happen. [Shareholder actions] are a good step, but they're mostly symbolic.

Noam Chomsky

Nice, Party, Democracy

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

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