Noam Chomsky, a renowned linguist, philosopher, and social critic, is widely regarded as one of the most influential intellectuals of our time. Born in 1928 in Philadelphia, Chomsky’s groundbreaking work in linguistics revolutionized the field, introducing concepts such as transformational grammar and universal grammar theory, which have had profound implications not only in linguistics but also in cognitive science and philosophy. Beyond his contributions to the study of language, Chomsky is equally known for his incisive critiques of political and economic systems, advocating for social justice, human rights, and grassroots activism.
Throughout his prolific career, Chomsky has fearlessly challenged power structures, questioned mainstream narratives, and championed the cause of the oppressed and marginalized. His sharp intellect, coupled with his unwavering commitment to truth and justice, has earned him both admiration and controversy. From dissecting the mechanisms of propaganda and media manipulation to dissecting the roots of inequality and imperialism, Chomsky’s insights continue to resonate with audiences worldwide, inspiring generations of thinkers and activists to critically engage with the world around them.
There’s a lot of fuss on the Left about election irregularities, like, you know, the voting machines were tampered with, they didn’t count the votes right, and so on. That’s all accurate and of some importance, but of far more importance is the fact that elections just don’t take place, not in any meaningful sense of the term ‘election.’ Noam Chomsky
In the case of Yugoslavia v. NATO, one of the charges was genocide. The U.S. appealed to the court, saying that, by law, the United States is immune to the charge of genocide, self-immunized, and the court accepted that, so the case proceeded against the other NATO powers, but not against the United States. Noam Chomsky
As a Zionist youth leader in the 1940s, I was among those who called for a binational state in Mandatory Palestine. When a Jewish state was declared, I felt that it should have the rights of other states – no more, no less. Noam Chomsky
I stated that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are ‘among the most unspeakable crimes in history.’ I took no position on just where they stand on the scale of horrors relative to Auschwitz, the bombing of Chungking, Lidice, and so on. Noam Chomsky
There’s a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy. Noam Chomsky
The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society. Noam Chomsky
History shows that, more often than not, loss of sovereignty leads to liberalisation imposed in the interests of the powerful. Noam Chomsky
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people. Noam Chomsky
If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. Noam Chomsky
If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are. Noam Chomsky
You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it. Noam Chomsky
Dissident intellectuals aren’t all beautiful. Noam Chomsky
Palestinians have no wealth or power. Noam Chomsky
Science, as everyone knows, is responsible, moderate, unsentimental, and otherwise good. Noam Chomsky
With the development of industrial capitalism, a new and unanticipated system of injustice, it is libertarian socialism that has preserved and extended the radical humanist message of the Enlightenment and the classical liberal ideals that were perverted into an ideology to sustain the emerging social order. Noam Chomsky
In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival. Noam Chomsky
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune. Noam Chomsky
I like the cold weather. It means you get work done. Noam Chomsky
I don’t think a Jewish or Christian or Islamic state is a proper concept. I would object to the United States as a Christian state. Noam Chomsky
Reparations – not just aid – should be provided by those responsible for devastating Iraqi civilian society by cruel sanctions and military actions, and – together with other criminal states – for supporting Saddam Hussein through his worst atrocities and beyond. That is the minimum that honesty requires. Noam Chomsky
In ideal form of social control is an atomised collection of individuals focused on their own narrow concern, lacking the kinds of organisations in which they can gain information, develop and articulate their thoughts, and act constructively to achieve common ends. Noam Chomsky
How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me. Noam Chomsky
In America, the professor talks to the mechanic. They are in the same category. Noam Chomsky
Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be – protect themselves. That’s why you have state secret laws. Citizens are not supposed to know what their government is doing to them. Noam Chomsky
Romania, which had the worst dictator in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu, he was a darling of the West. The United States and Britain loved him. He was supported until the last minute. Noam Chomsky
The truth is, I have absolutely no professional credentials – literally, which is why I’m teaching at MIT. Noam Chomsky
There are two problems for our species’ survival – nuclear war and environmental catastrophe – and we’re hurtling towards them. Knowingly. Noam Chomsky
The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself. Noam Chomsky
If you’re worried about the deficit, pay attention to the fact that it’s almost all attributable to military spending and the totally dysfunctional health program. Noam Chomsky
When a politician uses the word ‘folks,’ we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming. Noam Chomsky
The United States is afraid of China; it is not a military threat to anyone and is the least aggressive of all the major military powers. Noam Chomsky
There’s a War Crimes Act in the United States passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, which says that grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are subject to the death penalty. And that doesn’t mean the soldier that committed them – that means the commanders. Noam Chomsky
The Federal Reserve has an official commitment to two different policies. One is to prevent inflation from getting too high. The second is to maintain high employment… the European Central Bank has only the first. It has no commitment to keep employment up. Noam Chomsky
The ‘anti-globalisation movement’ is the most significant proponent of globalisation – but in the interests of people, not concentrations of state-private power. Noam Chomsky
I don’t join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn’t have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying child in Heaven – that’s none of my business, ultimately. I won’t lecture her on the philosophy of science. Noam Chomsky
When General Allenby conquered Jerusalem during World War I, he was hailed in the American press as Richard the Lion-Hearted, who had at last won the Crusades and driven the pagans out of the Holy Land. Noam Chomsky
If you have to control people, you have to have an administrative force that does it. So in U.S. industry, even more than elsewhere, there’s layer after layer of management – a kind of economic waste, but useful for control and domination. And the same is true in universities. Noam Chomsky
In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: They were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants. Noam Chomsky
The Oslo Accords in 1993 determined that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are a single territorial entity which cannot be divided. Immediately, the United States and Israel set about separating the two and making sure that they would not be united. Noam Chomsky
Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs. Noam Chomsky
If you are working 50 hours a week in a factory, you don’t have time to read 10 newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works. Noam Chomsky
When you look at a corporation, just like when you look at a slave owner, you want to distinguish between the institution and the individual. So slavery, for example, or other forms of tyranny, are inherently monstrous. The individuals participating in them may be the nicest guys you can imagine. Noam Chomsky
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever. Noam Chomsky
There is no plausible theory under which the record of the Pentagon Papers can be interpreted as relating to the national defense. Noam Chomsky
The childcare tax credit makes some sense. Noam Chomsky
If workers are more insecure, that’s very ‘healthy’ for the society, because if workers are insecure, they won’t ask for wages, they won’t go on strike, they won’t call for benefits; they’ll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that’s optimal for corporations’ economic health. Noam Chomsky
Everyone knows that when you look at a television ad, you do not expect to get information. You expect to see delusion and imagery. Noam Chomsky
It’s a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided. Noam Chomsky
Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony. Noam Chomsky
Debt is a social and ideological construct, not a simple economic fact. Noam Chomsky
In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. Noam Chomsky
Before the 1970s, banks were banks. They did what banks were supposed to do in a state capitalist economy: they took unused funds from your bank account, for example, and transferred them to some potentially useful purpose like helping a family buy a home or send a kid to college. Noam Chomsky
Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle. Noam Chomsky
The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor led to many very good things. If you follow the trail, it led to kicking Europeans out of Asia – that saved tens of millions of lives in India alone. Noam Chomsky
Anarchism means all sort of things to different people, but the traditional anarchists’ movements assumed that there’d be a highly organized society, just one organized from below with direct participation and so on. Noam Chomsky
As a tactic, violence is absurd. No one can compete with the Government in violence, and the resort to violence, which will surely fail, will simply frighten and alienate some who can be reached, and will further encourage the ideologists and administrators of forceful repression. Noam Chomsky
Some international law specialists compare the invasion of Iraq to the ‘crimes against the peace’ for which Nazi leaders were indicted at Nuremberg. Noam Chomsky
Markets are lethal, if only because of ignoring externalities, the impacts of their transactions on the environment. Noam Chomsky
As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss. Noam Chomsky
I would appear on Fox News more easily than I would NPR. Noam Chomsky
For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest, through which the events of current history are presented to us. Noam Chomsky
Somebody will be able to overcome any encryption technique you use! Noam Chomsky
The term ‘globalisation’ is conventionally used to refer to the specific form of investor-rights integration designed by wealth and power, for their own interests. Noam Chomsky
It is easy to dismiss the world as ‘irrelevant,’ or consumed by ‘paranoid anti-Americanism,’ but perhaps not wise. Noam Chomsky
If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it. Noam Chomsky
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. Noam Chomsky
Everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it. Noam Chomsky
Death and genitals are things that frighten people, and when people are frightened, they develop means of concealment and aggression. It is common sense. Noam Chomsky
If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged. Noam Chomsky
The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history. Noam Chomsky
In the US, there is basically one party – the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population. Noam Chomsky
Debt is a trap, especially student debt, which is enormous, far larger than credit card debt. It’s a trap for the rest of your life because the laws are designed so that you can’t get out of it. If a business, say, gets in too much debt, it can declare bankruptcy, but individuals can almost never be relieved of student debt through bankruptcy. Noam Chomsky
If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long. Noam Chomsky
International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places. Noam Chomsky
Nationalism has a way of oppressing others. Noam Chomsky
I don’t think that experience is a very useful or convincing attribute for a sensible foreign policy. Henry Kissinger had a lot of experience. Noam Chomsky
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. Noam Chomsky
If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion. Noam Chomsky
The Washington leadership has put aside non-proliferation programmes and devoted its energies and resources to driving the country to war by extraordinary deceit, then trying to manage the catastrophe it created in Iraq. Noam Chomsky
Israel is following policies which maximise its security threats… policies which choose expansion over security… policies which lead to their moral degradation, their isolation, their delegitimation, as they call it now, and very likely ultimate destruction. That’s not impossible. Noam Chomsky
Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated – Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example. Noam Chomsky
There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, ‘That person I see is a savage monster;’ instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do. Noam Chomsky
The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful. Noam Chomsky
You cannot control your own population by force, but it can be distracted by consumption. Noam Chomsky
The ‘free-floating intellectual’ may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect. Noam Chomsky
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Noam Chomsky
The ‘peace movement’ exists only in the fantasies of the paranoid. Noam Chomsky
Nicaragua dealt with the problem of terrorism in exactly the right way. It followed international law and treaty obligations. It collected evidence, brought the evidence to the highest existing tribunal, the International Court of Justice, and received a verdict – which, of course, the U.S. dismissed with contempt. Noam Chomsky
Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world. Noam Chomsky
Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media. Noam Chomsky
The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television. Noam Chomsky
In 1993, Israel and North Korea were moving towards an agreement in which North Korea would stop sending any missiles or military technology to the Middle East and Israel would recognize that country. President Clinton intervened and blocked it. Noam Chomsky
The public is not to see where power lies, how it shapes policy, and for what ends. Rather, people are to hate and fear one another. Noam Chomsky
The major advances in speed of communication and ability to interact took place more than a century ago. The shift from sailing ships to telegraph was far more radical than that from telephone to email! Noam Chomsky
If you don’t like what someone has to say, argue with them. Noam Chomsky
I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere. Noam Chomsky
No matter what engineering field you’re in, you learn the same basic science and mathematics. And then maybe you learn a little bit about how to apply it. Noam Chomsky
The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore. Noam Chomsky
The Internet has compromised the quality of debate. Noam Chomsky
In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society. Noam Chomsky
