The great man takes some time out: Describing himself as “terribly exhausted,” famed linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky said Monday that he was taking a break from combating the hegemony of the American imperialist machine to try and take it easy for once. “I just want to lie in a hammock and have a…
Showing all posts tagged Noam Chomsky
Chomsky fears the rise of fascism in the US
We have been warned: Noam Chomsky, the leading leftwing intellectual, warned last week that fascism may be coming to the United States. “I’m just old enough to have heard a number of Hitler’s speeches on the radio,” he said, “and I have a memory of the texture and the tone of the cheering mobs, and…
Chomsky on the reasons behind increased US funding to Colombia
Noam Chomsky writes about the “change” brought by the Obama administration to Latin America: Throughout the expansion of US Empire, Latin America retained its primacy in global planning. As Washington was considering the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile in 1971, Nixon’s National Security Council observed that if the US couldn’t control Latin America,…
Iran is fearful and may therefore want the bomb
Noam Chomsky, speaking last week at Harvard, says that the Islamic Republic has every right to fear American foreign policy and is therefore acting rationally to protect itself: No one in their right mind wants Iran to develop nuclear weapons. If they’re not developing a nuclear deterrent, they are crazy.
Violence is a means and an end: an interview with Mark Danner
My latest article for New Matilda is an interview with leading American reporter Mark Danner: Leading US journalist Mark Danner calls a spade a spade and examines the political value of violence in this exclusive interview with Antony Loewenstein Mark Danner has some unusual characteristics for a mainstream US journalist. He has published in some…
Chomsky on what should happen to Haiti right now
The following letter appeared in the London Guardian on 22 January: We the undersigned are outraged by the scandalous delays in getting essential aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti (‘Chaotic and confusing’ relief effort is costing lives, aid agencies warn, 19 January). As a result of the US decision to prioritise the accumulation…
What is the best way to end Israeli apartheid? Chomsky or Abunimah
Mondoweiss discusses the role of the Left in acknowledging and managing the catastrophe of modern Zionism and its brutal treatment of the Palestinians. Noam Chomsky is on one side – reluctant to fully embrace boycott, divestment and sanctions – and the other is Ali Abunimah, arguing that Israel will only change when it feels the…
Getting into Gaza
My following New Matilda article is published today: While the rest of us toasted the New Year, newmatilda.com correspondent Antony Loewenstein was in Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March In late December, one year after Israel’s brutal military assault on the Gaza Strip, some 1300 people from 43 countries descended on Cairo to draw attention…
Bolivian democracy in action (and the West should notice)
Bolivia this week re-elected an inspirational man to lead the country for another five years. The Wall Street Journal isn’t pleased (rambling about dictatorships), but the Guardian editorial perfectly explains the reason why Noam Chomsky calls the country a leading example of real democracy: President Evo Morales won a stunning victory in Bolivia yesterday, taking…
Chomsky on challenging our daily propaganda
Noam Chomsky, Language & Politics, quoted in Rai, p. 158: There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent…