Noam Chomsky in Hopes and Prospects
On Budget & Economy:
Banks thrive due to bailouts, while people suffer recession
Scott Brown's senatorial campaign outcome was depicted as a right-wing revolt of an angry population against the excesses of the liberal elitists. The official data showed that Brown was carried to victory by very high voting and enthusiasm in
the "affluent suburbs," alongside low turnout and general apathy in the urban areas that are largely Democratic. The outcome can be construed as an uprising against Obama's policies: for the wealthy, he was not doing enough to enrich them further, while
for the poorer sectors, he was doing too much to achieve that end.Doubtless there was some impact of the populist image crafted by the PR machine, but this appears to have had only a secondary role. The popular anger is quite understandable, with the
banks thriving thanks to bailouts while the population remains in deep recession. Unemployment is at 10% and in manufacturing industry at the level of Great Depression, with one out of six unemployed, as was reported the day of the Massachusetts election
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.230-231
Jun 1, 2010
On Corporations:
Corporations are legal persons with more rights than people
Over the years, the privileges granted to these state-created private tyrannies have been extended, primarily by courts. Corporations are legally persons under the law, with rights far beyond those of human beings. In the 2010 Supreme Court
5-4 decision on Citizens United, Chief Justice Roberts selected a case that could easily have been settled on narrow grounds, and maneuvered the Court into using it for a far-reaching decision that, in effect, permits corporate managers to buy elections
directly, instead of using more indirect means.
Corporate campaign contributions are a major factor in determining the outcome of elections, and the same is sure to be true of the virtually unlimited advertising for candidates now permitted by the
Court. This alone is a significant factor in policy decisions, reinforced by the enormous power of corporate lobbies and other conditions imposed by the very small sector of the population that dominates the economy.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 31-32
Jun 1, 2010
On Crime:
Slavery didn't end in 1860s; we criminalized Black life
Slavery did not end with the Civil War, despite the Constitutional Amendments that prohibited it in principle. The war was followed by a decade of partial freedom for African Americans, but by 1877, with the end of Reconstruction, slavery was
reconstituted in a new and even more sadistic form, as Black life was effectively criminalized and sentencing was rendered permanent by various means, while brutalizing prison labor provided a large part of the basis not only for agricultural production,
as under chattel slavery, but also for the American industrial revolution.In the past 30 years, a new form of criminalization has been instituted, much of it in the context of the "drug wars," leading to a huge increase in incarceration, mostly
targeting minorities. This provided a new supply of prison labor, much of it in violation of international labor conventions. Ever since the first slaves were brought to the colonies, life for African Americans has scarcely escaped the bonds of slavery.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 79
Jun 1, 2010
On Drugs:
Drug War intended to frighten people into obedience
The "war on drugs" was redeclared by Bush with a huge government-media propaganda campaign just in time to provide a pretext for the invasion of Panama to kidnap a thug who was convicted in Florida for crimes mostly committed when he was in CIA payroll.
The "war on drugs" also had an important domestic component. Much like the "war on crime," it served to frighten the population into obedience as domestic policies were being implemented to benefit extreme wealth at the expense of the large majority,
one part of broader processes to which we return.The alleged threat was later transmuted from Drugsto narcoterrorism, exploiting opportunities offered by 9/11. By the end of the millennium, total US military and police assistance in the hemisphere
already exceeded economic and social aid. That is a new phenomenon. Even at the height of the Cold War, economic aid far exceeded military aid.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 56-57
Jun 1, 2010
On Drugs:
Drug War punishes Bolivia for promoting democracy
In Bolivia, efforts to promote democracy, social justice, and cultural rights, and to bring about desperately needed structural and institutional changes are, naturally, bitterly opposed by the traditional rulers: the Europeanized, mostly white elite in
the eastern provinces, the site of most of the natural resources currently desired by the West. To punish Bolivians, the Bush administration canceled trade preferences, threatening tens of thousands of jobs, on the pretext that Bolivia was not
cooperating with US counter-narcotic efforts. In the real world, the UN estimates that Bolivia's coca crop increased 5% in 2007, as compared with 26% increase in Colombia, the terror state that is Washington's closest regional ally and the recipient of
enormous military aid.
As discussed earlier, "drug wars" are curious affairs. The same is true of condemnation (and decertification) for alleged noncompliance with US demands on counter-narcotic efforts.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.215
Jun 1, 2010
On Energy & Oil:
Climate solution's central element should be high-speed rail
Surely the US manufacturing industries could be reconstructed to produce what the country needs, using its highly skilled work force--and what the world needs,
and soon, if we are to hope to have some hope of averting major catastrophe.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 95-96
Jun 1, 2010
On Foreign Policy:
Gap between rich North & poor South created by conquest
Today's gap between North and South--the rich developed societies and the rest of the world--was largely created by the global conquest. Scholarship and science are beginning to recognize a record that had been concealed by imperial arrogance.
They are discovering that at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, and long before, the Western hemisphere was home to some of the world's most advanced civilizations. In the poorest country of South America, archaeologists are coming to believe
that eastern Bolivia was the site of a wealthy, sophisticated, and complex society of perhaps a million people. In the Peruvian Andes, by 1941 the Inca had created the greatest empire in the world, greater in scale than the Chinese, Russian,
Ottoman, or other empires, far greater than any European state, and with remarkable artistic, agricultural, and other achievements.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 4-5
Jun 1, 2010
On Foreign Policy:
Hamas has called for a two-state settlement
Obama says, "Hamas must meet clear conditions: recognize Israel's right to exist; renounce violence; and abide by past agreements." Unmentioned is the inconvenient fact that the US and Israel firmly reject all three conditions for themselves. In
international isolation, they bar a two-state settlement, thus rejecting Palestinian national rights. They of course do not renounce violence. And they reject the Quartet's central proposal, the "Road Map." Israel formally accepted it, but with fourteen
reservations that effectively eliminate its contents.Also near-universal are the standard references to Hamas: a terrorist organization, dedicated to the destruction of Israel (or maybe all Jews). Hamas has called for a 2-state settlement in the terms
of international consensus: publicly and repeatedly. Israel and the US object that the Hamas proposals do not go far enough. Perhaps so, but they go much farther toward the international consensus than the unwavering US-Israeli rejectionist stance.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.254-255
Jun 1, 2010
On Free Trade:
NAFTA hurts working people in US, Mexico, & Canada
One goal of NAFTA was to "lock Mexico in" to the so-called reforms of the 1980s, which created billionaires at about the same rate as they enhanced poverty. These "reforms" are the great benefit to the US owners, managers, and investors, though not to
working people. NAFTA was one of those rare treaties that managed to harm the working populations in all countries participating: Canada, the US, and Mexico. The US labor movement had proposed alternatives that would have benefitted the workforce in all
3 countries. Similar proposals were developed by Congress's Office of Technology Assessment (since disbanded). The proposals were never entered to the political agenda, and were even barred from the media. The attraction of NAFTA for North
American elites, the business press reported, was "precisely that it would tie the hands of the current future governments" of Mexico with regard to the economic policy. In brief, NAFTA, duly imposed by executive power, in opposition to the public will.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 35-36
Jun 1, 2010
On Free Trade:
US "level playing field" means "kicking away the ladder"
Historically, trade liberalization has been the outcome rather than the cause of economic development. From an extensive review, it is difficult to find another case where the facts so contradict dominant theory [as the theory] concerning the negative
impact on protectionism. The conclusion holds into the twentieth century, when other forms of market interference become more prominent.The "dominant theory" is that of the rich and powerful, who have regularly advocated liberalization for others,
and sometimes for themselves as well, once they have achieved a dominant position and hence are willing to face competition on a "level playing field"--that is, one sharply tilted in their favor. The stand is sometimes called "kicking away the ladder" by
economic historians: first we violate the rules to climb to the top, then we kick way the ladder so that you cannot follow us, and we righteously proclaim: "Let's play fair, on a level playing field."
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 76
Jun 1, 2010
On Health Care:
National system covers all & removes wasteful inefficiencies
A majority of the public has long favored a national health care system, which should be far less expensive and more effective, comparative evidence indicates (along with many studies). The
US is alone in relying on such a system, which, quite apart from its impact on those who are left out, introduces numerous wasteful inefficiencies (complex billing costs, close surveillance of doctors by insurance company bureaucrats, advertising,
profits, the expenses of cherry-picking and denial of treatment on the basis of small print, reliance on expensive emergency room care for the tens of millions of uninsured and underinsured, etc.). Largely for these reasons--and because of the
legislation, unique to the US, that bars government negotiation of drug process--per capita health care costs in the US are about twice those of other industrial countries, and outcomes rank low among them.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.226
Jun 1, 2010
On Homeland Security:
US accounts for 40% of whole world's military expenditures
The immense city-within-a-city "embassy" in Baghdad not only remains, but its cost is also to rise under Obama to $1.8 billion a year, from an estimated $1.5 billion in Bush's last year. The Obama administration is also constructing mega-embassies in
Pakistan and Afghanistan that are completely without precedent. Throughout the Gulf region, billions are being spent to develop "critical base & port facilities," along with military training & arms shipments expanding the US global system of
militarization.Meanwhile, global military expenses continue to rise. For 2008, the US accounted for over 40% of global military expenses, eight times as much as its nearest rival, China. The US is of course alone in having a vast network of military
bases around the world and a global surveillance and control system, and in regularly invading other countries (with impunity, given its power). From 1999 to 2008, global military spending increased 45%, with the US accounting for 58% of the total.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 63
Jun 1, 2010
On Homeland Security:
Eliminate nukes under UN; already voted 147-to-1 against US
It is clear how the threat of nuclear weapons can be ended: they can be eliminated, a legal obligation of the nuclear powers, as the World Court determined a decade ago. More broadly, there are sensible and feasible plans to restrict all production of
weapons-usable fissile materials to an international agency, to which states can apply for nonmilitary uses. The UN Committee on Disarmament has already votes for a verifiable treaty with these provisions in 2004. The vote was 147 to 1 (the US) with two
abstentions (Israel & Britain). A negative vote by the reigning global superpower amounts to a veto, in fact a double veto: the proposals cannot be implemented, and are banned from public awareness. But these outcomes are not graven in stone. There are
concrete steps that can be taken to progress toward these critical goals. And an informed & engaged public, worldwide, can act to ensure that the opportunity is not lost. One important step would be the establishment of nuclear weapons-free zones.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.167
Jun 1, 2010
On Homeland Security:
Iran has no nukes, but Israel & Pakistan & India do
Obama called for tough direct diplomacy "without preconditions" in order "to pressure Iran directly to change their troubling behavior," namely pursuing a nuclear program and supporting terrorism. If Iran abandons its troubling behavior, the
US might move toward normal diplomatic and economic relations, Obama proposed, but "if Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation." Furthermore, Obama proceeded, he will strengthen the
NPT "so that countries like North Korea and Iran that break the rules will automatically face strong international sanctions." He made no mention of the conclusion of US intelligence that Iran had not had a weapons program for five years, unlike
US allies in Israel, Pakistan, and India, the three countries that all maintain extensive nuclear weapons programs (with direct US support), all unmentioned as well.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.249
Jun 1, 2010
On Immigration:
NAFTA's agribusiness competition caused Mexican flight to US
1994 was the year of the enactment of NAFTA, the so-called North American Free Trade Agreement, which, like others, has only a limited relation to free trade and is not an "agreement," at least if citizen s are part of their countries.
It was anticipated by rational analysts that opening Mexico to a highly subsidized US agribusiness production would sooner or later undermine Mexican farming, and that Mexican business would not be able to withstand completion from huge
US corporations that must be allowed to operate freely in Mexico under the treaty. One likely consequence would be flight to the United States, joined by those fleeing the countries of Central America, which had been ravaged again by
Reaganite terror in the 1980s. Therefore, the border had to be militarized. The imperative of protecting the country from the consequences of NAFTA and other such economic measures is far higher than protection from the threat of terror.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 29
Jun 1, 2010
On Jobs:
Obama backed EFCA, then visited scab/lockout company
A labor journalist wrote that "while running for office, Obama said he strongly backed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a long-overdue labor law reform measure that should be part of his promised economic stimulus plan." However, when
Obama took office, EFCA quickly vanished. Pres. Obama decided to show his solidarity with workers by giving a talk at a Caterpillar plant. The hardline CEO of Caterpillar rescinded the contract with United Auto Workers in
1991, instituted a lockout, threatened to bring in "permanent replacement workers" (scabs), and later did so, for the first time in generations in manufacturing industry. The practice was illegal in other industrial countries. It is hard to imagine that
Obama and his advisers purposely chose a corporation that led the way to undermine labor rights. More likely, they were unaware of the facts.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.217-218
Jun 1, 2010
On Principles & Values:
Great Seal of Massachusetts defined "City on a Hill"
To this day, the US is reverentially admired, at home at least, as "a city on a hill." The inspirational phrase "city on a hill" was coined in 1630, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Great Seal. The seal depicts an Indian pleading to the colonists
to "Come over and help us." The charter states that conversion of the population is "the principle end of this plantation." The British colonists were the benevolent humanists, responding to the pleas of the miserable natives to be rescued from their
bitter pagan fate.The Great Seal is a graphic presentation of "the idea of America" from its birth. It should appear with Ronald Reagan who blissfully described himself as the leader of a "shining city on the hill" while orchestrating the ghastly
crimes of his years in office, leaving not only slaughter and destruction in much of the world but also major threats of nuclear war and terror, and as an extra benefit, a major contribution to global jihadism.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p. 21-22
Jun 1, 2010
On Principles & Values:
Both major parties are well to the right of US population
The word that immediately rolled off every tongue after the presidential election was "historic." And rightly so. A Black family in the White House is truly a momentous event.There were some surprises. One was that the election was not over after the
Democratic convention. One might expect that the opposition party would have a landslide victory during a severe economic crisis, after eight years of disastrous policies on all fronts, with an incumbent so unpopular that his own party had to disavow
him, and a dramatic collapse in US standing in world opinion. The Democrats did win, barely. If the financial crisis had been slightly delayed, they might not have.
A good question is why the margin of victory for the opposition party was so small,
given the circumstances. One possibility is that neither party reflects public opinion. As many studies show, both parties are well to the right of the population on many major issues, domestic and international.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.207
Jun 1, 2010
On Principles & Values:
2008: woman & black candidates show US has become civilized
The two candidates in the 2008 Democratic primary were a woman and an African American. That was historic. It would have been unimaginable forty years ago. The fact that the country has become civilized enough to accept this outcome is a
considerable tribute to the activism of the 1960s and its aftermath, an observation with lessons for the future. Obama's message of "hope" and "change" offered a virtual blank slate on which supporters could write their wishes.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.209-210
Jun 1, 2010
On War & Peace:
Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections
Despite the harsh US-Israeli punishment of Gaza, and flooding the West Bank's Fatah-led government with a diplomatic and economic support to persuade Palestinians in both territories to embrace Fatah and isolate Hamas, the opposite is happening: Hamas's
popularity is increasing in the West Bank. Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006, prompting the Israeli government and the Bush administration to lead a world-wide boycott of the Palestinian Authority. The goal, unconcealed, is to punish the miscreants
who fail to grasp the essential principle of democracy: Do what we say, or else.It is important not to overlook the fact that the US-Israel operate is tandem. Israel relies crucially on US military, economic, diplomatic, and ideological support.
It will proceed as far as the US allows. Its criminal actions are US crimes.
In response to the unfortunate free elections of Jan. 2006, US-Israeli punishment of the people of Gaza is sharply increased, peaking with many killing in early June.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.145-146
Jun 1, 2010
On War & Peace:
Iranian nukes are recognized as their right by most of world
The goal of a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone has been endorsed by Iran, and is supported by a large majority of Americans and Iranians. It is, however, dismissed by the US government and both political parties, and it is hard to find even a mentio
in mainstream discussion despite the intense focus on the alleged threat of Iranian nuclear weapons program. The developing countries (G-77, now more than 130), agree that Iran has the "inalienable rights" of all parties to the Non-Proliferation
Treaty "to develop research, production, and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination," rights that would also extend to US allies Israel, Pakistan, and India were they to accept the NPT. When Washington and the media assert tha
Iran is defying "the world" by enriching uranium, they are defining "the world" to be Washington and whoever happens to agree with it at the moment. By definition, Washington is part of the world. London too, almost always.
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.169
Jun 1, 2010
On War & Peace:
Disallow Israeli settlements by discontinuing US funding
The Obama-Clinton formulation repeats the Bush administration draft of the 2003 Roadmap: "Israel freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)." All sides formally accept the Roadmap, overlooking the fact the Israel, with US
support, at once added 14 "reservations" that render it inoperable.If Obama were at all serious about opposing settlement expansions, he could easily proceed with concrete measures, for example, by reducing US aid by the amount devoted to this purpose
That would hardly be a radical or courageous move. The Bush I administration did so (reducing loan guarantees), but after the Oslo accord in 1993, Pres. Clinton left calculations to the government of Israel. Unsurprisingly, there was no change in the
expenditures flowing to the settlements.
An Obama administration official informed the press that the Bush I measures are "not under discussion," and the pressures will be "largely symbolic." In short, Obama understands, just as Clinton and Bush II did
Source: Hopes and Prospects, by Noam Chomsky, p.187-190
Jun 1, 2010
Page last updated: Jul 19, 2011