Noam Chomsky in The Common Good

On Drugs: Drug use is falling anyway; drug war is fraudulent

The utterly fraudulent war on drugs was undertaken at a time when everyone knew that use of every drug-even coffee-was falling among educated whites, and was staying sort of level among blacks. The police obviously find it much easier to make an arrest on the streets of a black ghetto than in a white suburb. By now, a very high percentage of incarceration is drug-related, and it mostly targets little guys, somebody who’s caught peddling dope. The big guys are largely ignored.

Drug-related crimes, usually pretty trivial ones, are mostly what’s filling up the prisons. I haven’t seen many bankers or executives of chemical corporations in prison. People in the rich suburbs commit plenty of crimes, but they’re not going to prison at anything like the rate of the poor.

Source: The Common Good, interviews by David Barsamian, p. 35 & 38 Feb 7, 1997

On Principles & Values: Elite seek magic keys; underclass works toward solutions

Over the years, I have noticed a very striking difference between talks I give to more elite and less elite audiences. In meetings and discussions with less privileged people, people never ask, What should I do? They say, Here’s what I’m doing. What do you think about it? Maybe they’d like some reaction or suggestions, but they’re already dealing with the problem. They’re not sitting around waiting for a magic answer, which doesn’t exist.

When I speak to elite audiences, I constantly get asked, What’s the solution? If I say obvious thing like Pick your cause and go volunteer for a group that’s working on it, that’s never the answer they want. They want some sort of magic key that will solve everything quickly, overwhelmingly, and effectively. There are no such solutions.

People who are actually engaged in dealing with the problems of life sometimes just give up. You can find that too. But many keep struggling effectively and bring about changes.

Source: The Common Good, interviews by David Barsamian, p.151-52 Feb 7, 1997

The above quotations are from The Common Good, interviews of Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian. Click here for other excerpts from The Common Good, interviews of Noam Chomsky by David Barsamian. Click here for other excerpts by Noam Chomsky. Click here for a profile of Noam Chomsky.
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