I thought, in some respects, since I concluded that it wasn’t my job to decide these things, but rather to present points of view, a collection of methods—an intellectual toolkit, so to speak—and an enthusiastic model. Then get out of the way. That’s all an educator can, and should do, in my humble opinion. Anything more is not education, it’s indoctrination.

First, Chomsky defines his view of education in an Enlightenment sense, in which the “highest goal in life is to inquire and create. The purpose of education from that point of view is just to help people to learn on their own. It’s you the learner who is going to achieve in the course of education and it’s really up to you to determine how you’re going to master and use it.” An essential part of this kind of education is fostering the impulse to challenge authority, think critically, and create alternatives to well-worn models.

powerful structure in the society that would prefer people to be indoctrinated..

choices we have to make.. where we stand in ed system….

cultivating the capacity to always seek what is significant

11:43 – cost or investment

human capital
do we want to have a society of free creative individuals or do we want people who can increase gdp – not the same thing

ed system – create better human beings
need spaces that encourage exploration of thought… you won’t get tech that will lead to economic gains – even though that is not the prime purpose

15:40 – assessment vs autonomy

ed is about getting students to the point where they are going to learn on their own

via

“Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?” Noam Chomsky bit.ly/RKOQKR

______________________

 

It’s kind of interesting to read the liberal literature in the 70s, but there was concern about what they called, at the liberal end, “the failures of the institutions responsible for indoctrinating the young.” That’s the phrase that was used, which expresses the liberal view quite accurately. You got to keep them from our throats. So the indoctrination of the young wasn’t working properly. That was actually Samuel Huntington, professor of government at Harvard, kind of a liberal stalwart. And he co-authored a book-length report called The Crisis of Democracy. There was something that had to be done to increase indoctrination, to beat back the democratizing wave. The economy was sharply modified and went through a liberal period, with radical inequality, stagnation, financial institutions, all that stuff. Student debt started to skyrocket, which is quite important. But that’s a technique of indoctrination in itself. It’s never been studied. Important things usually never get studied; it’s just putting together the bits of information about it. One can at least be suspicious that skyrocketing student debt is a device of indoctrination. It’s very hard to imagine that there’s any economic reason for it. Other countries’ education is free, like Mexico’s, and that is a poor country.

And now it’s institutionalized with No Child Left Behind/Race to the Top; teach to the test – worst possible way of teaching. But it is a disciplinary technique.

_______________________

Noam Chomsky (2013) Full Discussion with Jeremy Scahill and Amy Goodman

Published on May 24, 2013

________________________

via

oct 4, 2013:

mit for 60 years. whoa.

13 min – difference between understanding/doing diagnosis, and simply gathering/searching lots of data

machine translation.. done by brute force.. doesn’t give insight into the nature of translation…

19 min – singularity (ray kurzweil) is science fiction, ..i think we should be concerned about the end of our species.. but not because of that.. we should be concerned because we are busy destroying our possibilities for decent survival

reference to machines is reference to programs. device itself is a paper weight. it can execute the program

program is a theory, designed to be executed by machine, but does it give insight and understanding…

can we design a theory of being smart. we are eons away from that.

23:45 – progress? – there’s a slow expansion of the moral sphere, there’s also regression – ie: climate

26:30 – visitor from mars might assess the world: designed in a way to destroy themselves along with others along with them.. do we make the choice/effort to show that what looks like rational conclusion is nevertheless mistaken

28:30 – it’s a miracle we haven’t had a nuclear war – so we need to hasten address to this

29 – take a clear eyed look at the world around us.. and decide what we can do to avert that distraction…

__________________________

STARR FORUM: The Passion of Chelsea Manning (Chase Madar, Noam Chomsky)

oct 9 2013 – video

The astonishing leaks attributed to Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning are viewed from many angles, from Tunisia to Guantanamo Bay, from Foggy Bottom to Baghdad to small-town Oklahoma. Around the world, the eloquent alleged act of one young soldier forces citizens to ask themselves if they have the right to know what their government is doing.

About the speakers:
Chase Madar is a civil rights attorney in New York and the author of The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower (Verso). He tweets @ChMadar.

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political critic, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years.

http://techtv.mit.edu/videos/26265-book-talk-chase-mador-noam-chomsky

power is immune to justice

____________________

documentary by Michel Gondry– is the man who is tall happy

via Amy Goodman and democracy now:

_____________________

Published on Jun 17, 2013

_____________________

Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Noam Chomsky, Howard Gardner, and Bruno della Chiesa

Published on May 24, 2013

understand your own oppression – it’s not a law of nature..

33 min – consciousness raising.. thinking for yourself..

45 min – wow – may day in rest of world.. supporting suppressed americans with their 8 hour work day

48 – the reason frerie is unknown – he wasn’t just talking about literacy, if he’d been saying.. here’s a nice method for teaching literacy,… but instead.. it was about literacy as a means for raising questions…

56 min – it’s statistics for god’s sake (pisa et al)

57- put everything in numbers – to look serious – but also to not go deeper.. you quit asking once numbers are presented..

______________

book links to amazon

notes via http://www.csub.edu/~mault/pdffiles/democracy%20and%20education.pdf

ch. 2: let me return to one of Dewey’s central themes, that the ultimate aim of production is not production of goods but the productipn of free human being associated with one another on terms of equality. 

_______________

Noam at Dewey lectures 2013:

before Noam… Stanley’s 4 views he’s been peddling.. not sure…? even if so.. perhaps shouldn’t be.. no?

on Noam – lecture 3:

He likened dogmatic intellectual structures that interfere with free inquiry to coercive political structures that stifle the individual’s creative independence and fail to encourage humanity’s “richest diversity.” He asserted that any institution marked by domination and hierarchy must rise to the challenge of justifying itself, and if it cannot meet the challenge, it should be dismantled. 

It was thought of the highest order performed by a thinker, now 85 years old, who by and large eschewed rhetorical flourishes (he has called his own speaking style “boring” and says he likes it that way) and just did it, where ‘it” was the patient exploration of deep issues that had been explored before him by a succession of predecessors, fully acknowledged, in a conversation that is forever being continued and forever being replenished.

At the conclusion of each lecture, Chomsky received a thundering round of applause; by the third day the applause was deafening and sustained; it refused to stop. The applause, I am certain, was not for the specific points being made — points Chomsky has been making in some form for more than 50 years — but for the exemplary nature of the performance. The term “master class” is a bit overused, but I feel no hesitation in using it here. It was a master class taught by a master, and if someone were to ask me what exactly is it that academics do, I would point to these lectures and say, simply, here it is, the thing itself.

Educational reform, he said, is “a euphemism for the destruction of public education.”

_______________

Noam interview dec 2013 – he starts at about 20 min:

__________

written jan 2014, modification of talk at dewey lectures dec 2013:

About 70 percent of the population, at the lower end of the wealth/income scale, has no influence on policy, Gilens concludes. Moving up the scale, influence slowly increases. At the very top are those who pretty much determine policy, by means that aren’t obscure. The resulting system is not democracy but plutocracy.

Or perhaps, a little more kindly, it’s what legal scholar Conor Gearty calls “neo-democracy,” a partner to neoliberalism – a system in which liberty is enjoyed by the few, and security in its fullest sense is available only to the elite, but within a system of more general formal rights.

Like Karl Marx’s Old Mole – “our old friend, our old mole, who knows so well how to work underground, then suddenly to emerge” – the libertarian tradition is always burrowing close to the surface, always ready to peek through, sometimes in surprising and unexpected ways, seeking to bring about what seems to me to be a reasonable approximation to the common good.

__________

interview feb 2014:

Challenges Facing Humanity

notes:

divorce of policy from people…

6:40 – study – public attitudes

in us very heavily polled society – good consistent results of what people want –

but is it really? is it what they want – or what they want out of assumed choices even… like pbl –

lowest 70% of population on wealth scale have no effect on policy – no one listens to them.. – plutocracy with most of the population

10 min – no sign of a revolutionary left – they are trying to work w/in existing institution (which makes sense to press w/in as much as you can) – but there will be points where you can’t go any further…

you can create future society w/in the existing one, ie: n ohio – growth of worker owned enterprises – elements of a future free society – true democratic society – communist society if you want to call it that

14 min – do you think we’re heading into barbarism now – i hope not – and we can certainly prevent it

23 min – rights are won by popular struggle – they’re not gifts from above -….it’s going to take substantial popular activism at education.. to overcome concentrated power that wants to accelerate the danger….

i should say –

it’s not the individuals..

…the same people that may be funding efforts to turn the country into stupid nations.. that don’t understand.. those same people individually understand what’s happening as much as the rest of us.. but they have a kind of institutional role.. that compels them to act differently

exactly what we’ve found/see/experienced. to a person.. an individual person.. people crave betterness. we’ve let it.. and so it’s got us.. asleep in pluralistic ignorance. we’re assuming the individuals think/believe/etc.. when it’s actually what the institutions are perpetuating by design. it’s the system that is keeping us from us… and perhaps tech can help us get back to us.. via it’s capacity to facilitate 7 billion people practicing

networked individualism..

.

25 min – when a business is making decisions.. it’s not internalizing the cost of destruction of environment… and it won’t be considered in a market system.. that part of the fundamental and possibly even lethal defects of these systems..

do you think the polarizing is being encouraged intentionally..

27 min – media concept of objectivity – recounting accurately what’s happening inside …decision making circles… if demos and repubs are arguing – you’re suppose to discuss that. it they’re not if they are agreeing on something – you don’t discuss it..one of the things they are basically agreeing on is subordination to corporate power and disregard to massive externalities like destruction of the environment.. so you’re down to what they are willing to debate – which is not insignificant – like guns.. i don’t think it’s deliberate deception – it’s another.. almost institutional property – it’s not a matter of bad people.. it’s a matter of institutional structure to maximize bad choices – that’s a serious probelm

______________

The basic insight was expressed well by the Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington: “The architects of power in the United States must create a force that can be felt but not seen. Power remains strong when it remains in the dark; exposed to the sunlight it begins to evaporate.”

For example, President Obama’s drone-driven global assassination program, by far the world’s greatest terrorist campaign, is also a terror-generating campaign. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan until he was relieved of duty, spoke of “insurgent math”: For every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies.

This concept of “innocent person” tells us how far we’ve progressed in the last 800 years, since the Magna Carta, which established the principle of presumption of innocence that was once thought to be the foundation of Anglo-American law.

These acts of aggression were, again, a matter of little concern to planners, who are guided by altogether different concepts of security. Even instant destruction by nuclear weapons has never ranked high for state authorities – a topic for discussion in the next column.

____________

talk at google, april 2014:

12:14 – the internet is great – but we’re not yet using it for what it could be used for

14 – language is a system of thought.. can be used to communicate – but doesn’t seem to be part of its design.. in fact.. can even undermine its design

19 – a language is a repository of cultural wealth

22 min – reviving tribal language – hasn’t happened before

55 min – capacities we have

______________

may 2014:

18 min

40 min – we can change.. if we wake up

_________________

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That wont happen if you care only about yourself

2:58am · 24 Dec 2013 

Question Everything

9 min – ed system under attach – but called reform. ed system is badly underfunded.

k-12 – dampening curiosity/creativity

higher ed – dampening via debt – limits opportunity

effect is to create obedience and passivity – and none of this is necessary

idle hands, plenty of resources, plenty of work to be done.. society just can’t seem to put them together..

1st time in human history – where profit tomorrow is outweighing grandchildrens future

1961 – we began to resist passivity

23 min – fav color – blue – fav thing – sailing

fav author – usually what i just finished reading

i was never aware of any other option than to question everything..

[hmm – i listened twice and never heard the quote above from Noam..  ]

____________

aug 2014 – Glenn and Noam on no place to hide:

40 min ish – Noam quoting a harvard prof: power operates in the dark, when it’s exposed to light it disseminates

1:00 – Noam quoting orwell’s book that wasn’t published – that education indoctrination can be even worse than torture… and students/youth should be freed from that compulsion/coercion to not speak/ask their mind

______________

sept 2014:

via Graham Brown Martin

In this excerpt from the forthcoming book and transmedia production, Learning {Re}imagined, Professor Noam Chomsky, social and political theorist reflects on the question, “what is the value of assessments and testing within todays educational systems?”

learning-reimagined.com

learning reimagined
wise-qatar.org

wise
about.me/grahambrownmartin

__________

oct 2014:

http://truth-out.org/news/item/26693-democracy-and-education-in-the-21st-century-and-beyond-an-interview-with-noam-chomsky

__________

Arundhati Roy

Howard Zinn

Daniel Ellsberg

___________

1993

Profit Over People

35 min ish – terror ism – world trade center bombing.. (happened couple months prior to interview):

– – –

book links to amazon..

1999

– –

notes:

as Chomsky says, if you act like there is not possibility of change for the better, you guarantee that there will be no change for the better. – Robert McChesney

ch 1: neoliberalism

the principal architects of the neoliberal washington consensus are the masters of the private economy, mainly huge corporations that control much of the international economy and have the means to dominate policy formation as well as the structuring of thought and opinion.

that is the heart of the matter. the “bad ideas” may not serve the “expressed goals,” but they typically turn out to be very good ideas for their principal architects.

p. 67 ish – experiments going back 200 years. ie: brazil – from 1945 the unite states used brazil as a “testing area for modern scientific methods of industrial development based solidly on capitalism.” the experiment was carried out with “the best of intentions.” foreign investors benefited, but planners “sincerely believed” that the people of brazil would benefit as well. i need not describe how they benefited as brazil became “the latin american darling of the international business community” under military rule, in the words of the business press, while the world bank reported that two-thirds of the population did not have enough food for normal physical activity.

mexico same. 1994.

u.s. same. – 1999. highest level of child poverty of any industrial society.. meanwhile the business press cannot find adjectives exuberant enough to describe the “dazzling” and “stupendous” profit growth, ..

Wilhelm von Humboldt condemned wage labor itself: when the laborer works under external control, he wrote, “we may admire what he does, but we despise what he is.”

“The art advances, the artisan recedes,” Alexis de Tocquevilled observed.

ch 2: consent w/o consent – regimenting the public mind

the issues were addressed 250 years ago by David Hume in classic work. Hume as intrigued by “the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, the implicit submission with which men resign” their fate to their rulers. this he found surprising, because “force is always on the side of the governed.” if people would realize that, they would rise up and overthrow the masters. he concluded that government is founded on control of opinion, a principle that “extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.” 

a more accurate version is that the more” free and popular” a government, the more it becomes necessary to rely on control of opinion to ensure submission to the rulers.

..as a parent keeping a child from running into the street..

.. he who owns the country ought to run it.. but who owns the country..

… it remains a difficult task to compel the public to keep to the spectator role.

the constitutional system must be designed to prevent such injustice and “secure the permanent interests of the country,” which are property rights.

among madisonian scholars, there is a consensus that “the constitution was intrinsically an aristocratic document designed to check the democratic tendencies of the period,” delivering power to a “better sort” of people and excluding those who were not rich, well born, or prominent from exercising political power (Lance Banning). the primary responsibility of government is “to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority,” Madison declared. that has been the guiding principle of the democratic system from its origins until today.

in public discussion, Madison spoke of the rights of minorities in general, but it is quite clear that he had a particular minority in mind: “the minority of the opulent.”

.. “in a just and free government the rights of both the property and of the persons ought to be effectually guarded.” … rights to property: that is, rights of persons with property.

the madisonian principle, then, is that government must guard the rights of persons generally, but must provide special and additional guarantees for the rights of one class of persons, property owners.

seen in the form of g/t et al no?

he was concerned by the “symptoms of leveling spirit” that had already appeared, and warned “of the future danger” if the right to vote would place “power over property in hand without a share in it.” those “without property, or the hope of acquiring it, cannot be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its rights,” Madison explained. his solution was to keep political power in the hands of those who “come from and represent the wealth of the nation” the “more capable set of men,” with the general public fragmented and disorganized.

holy crap.

the pattern continues today. the champion human rights violator in the hemisphere is colombia, also the leading recipient of us military aid and training in recent years. the pretext is the “drug war,” but that is “a myth,” as regularly reported by major human rights groups, the church, and others who have investigated the shocking record of atrocities and the close links between the narcotraffickers, landowners, the military, and their paramilitary associates. state terror has devastated the popular organizations and virtually destroyed the one independent political party by assassination of thousands of activists, including presidential candidates, mayors, and others. nonetheless colombia is hailed as a stable democracy, revealing again what is meant by “democracy.”

my comments on the madisonian roots of the prevailing concepts of democracy were unfair in an important respect. like Adam Smith and other founders of classical liberalism, Madison was precapitalist, and anticapitalist in spirit. he expected that the rulers would be “enlightened statesmen” and “benevolent philosophers,” “whose wisdom may best discern the true interests of their country.”….

Madison soon learned differently, as the “opulent minority” proceeded to use their newfound powers as much as Adam Smith had predicted..

propaganda provides the leadership with a mechanism “to mold the mind of the masses” so that “they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction.” … this process of “engineering consent” is the very “essence of the democratic process,” Bernays wrote shortly before he was honored for his contributions by the american psychological association in 1949.

the importance of “controlling the public mind” has been recognized with increasing clarity as popular struggles succeeded in extending the modalities of democracy, thus giving rise to what liberal elites call “the crisis of democracy” as when normally passive and apathetic populations become organized and seek to enter the political arena to pursue their interests and demands, threatening stability and order.

the intelligent few were perhaps unaware that their “astounding success” relied in no small part on propaganda fabrications about hun astrocities provided to them by the british ministry of information, which secretly defined its task as “to direct the thought of most of the world.”

“wilsonian idealism” … Wilson’s own view was that an elite of gentlemen with “elevated ideals: is needed to preserve “stability and righteousness.” it is the intelligent minority of “responsible men” who must control decision making, another veteran of Wilson’s propaganda committee, Walter Lippmann, explained in his influential essays on democracy. Lippmann was also the most respected figure in us journalism and a noted commentator on public affairs for half a century.

intro’d to Lippmann via Eli Pariser.. revisit

the intelligent minority are a “specialized class” who are responsible for setting policy and for “the formation of a sound public opinion,” Lippmann elaborated. they must be free from interference by the general public who are “ignorant and meddlesome outsiders.” the public must “be put in its place,” Lippmann continued: their “function” is to be “spectators of action,” not participants, apart from periodic electoral exercises when they choose among the specialized class. leaders must be free to operate in “technocratic insulation,” to borrow current world bank terminology.

voting ness.

 pluralistic ignorance ..

in the encyclopedia of social sciences, Harold Lasswell, one of the founders of modern political science, warned that the intelligent few must recognize the “ignorance and stupidity of the masses” and not succumb to “democratic dogmatisms about men being the best judges of their own interests.” they are not the best judges; we are. the masses must be controlled for their own good, and in more democratic societies, where force is unavailable, social managers must turn to “a whole new technique of control, largely through propaganda.”

and free compulsory school. no?

more than 80 percent of the public think that the government is run for the benefit of the few and the special interests, not the people,” up from about 50 percent in earlier years. over 80 percent believe that the economic system is “inherently unfair,” and that working people have too little say in what goes on in the country.

the 1994 congressional election is a revealing example of the gap between rhetoric and fact. it was called a “political earthquake,” a “landslide victory,” ….  turning to the facts, the “landslide victory” was won with barely more than half the votes cast, about 20 percent of the electorate, figures that hardly differ from two years earlier, ..

(after listing high percentages of american supports, ie: unemployment, child-care, et al).. the resilience of such attitudes is particularly striking in the light of the unremitting propaganda assault to persuade the public that they hold radically different beliefs.

all of this is very natural in a society that is, to an unusual degree, business-run, with huge expenditures on marketing: $1 trillion a year, one-sixty of gross domestic product, much of it tax-deductible, so that people pay for the privilege of being subjected to manipulation of their attitudes and behavior.

repeatedly it has been thought that the problem has been solved, and that the “end of history” has been reached in a kind of utopia of the masters. one classic moment was at the origins of neoliberal doctrine in the early nineteenth century, when David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus, and other great figures of classical economics announced that the new science had proven, with the certainty of Newton’s laws, that we only harm the poor by trying to help them, and that the best gift we can offer the suffering masses is to free them fro the delusion that they have a right to live. the new science proved that people had no rights beyond what they can obtain in the unregulated labor market…..but an unanticipated problem arose. the stupid masses began to draw the conclusions that if we have not right to live, then you have no right to rule.

there is no more reason now than there has ever been to believe that we are constrained by mysterious and unknown social laws, not simply decisions made within institutions that are subject to human will – human institutions, that have to face the test of legitimacy and, if they do not meet it, can be replaced by others that are more free and more just, as often in the past.

ch 3: passion for free markets

in short, the world that the united states has sought “to create in its image” through international institutions is one based on the principle of the rule of force. and the “american passion for free trade” entails that the us government may violate trade agreements at will.

in 1985, 16,000 cubans worked in third world countries, more than twice the total peace corps and aid specialists from the united states. by 1988, cuba had “more physicians working abroad than any industrialized nation, and more than the un’s world health organization. most of the aid is uncompensated, and cuba’s “international emissaries” are “men and women who live under conditions that most development aid workers would not accept,” which is “the basis for their success.” for cubans, the report continues, “international service” is regarded as “a sign of political maturity” and taught in the schools as “the highest value.”

ch 4: market democracy in a neoliberal order – doctrines and reality

1997 talk in cape town: freedom without opportunity is a devil’s gift, and the refusal to provide such opportunities is criminal. the fate of the more vulnerable offers a sharper measure of the distance from here to something that might be called “civilization.” while i am speaking, 1000 children will die from easily preventable disease, and almost twice that many women will die or suffer serious disability in pregnancy or childbirth for lack of simple remedies and care. unicef estimated that to overcome such tragedies, and to ensure universal access to basic social services, would require a quarter of the annual military expenditures of the “developing countries,” about 10 percent of us military spending. it is against the background of such realities as these that any serious discussion of human freedom should proceed.

it is widely held that the cure for such profound social maladies is within reach. this hope is not without foundation.

while reading.. ferguson protestors (& comparison to palestine):

the tacit assumption is that no country has a right to defend civilians from us attack, a doctrine that reigned virtually unchallenged in the mainstream.

the pretext for washington’s terrorist wars was self-defense, the standard official justification for just about any monstrous act, even the nazi holocaust. indeed Ronald Reagan, finding “that the policies and actions of the government of nicaragua constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the united states, declared “a national emergency to deal with that threat,” arousing no ridicule.”

democracy is permissible, even welcome, but again, as judged by outcome, not process.

yet process is what democracy is all about. Yaacov ness. and outcome – not so much. Langer / Greenfield ness

ch 5: zapatista uprising

ch 6: the ultimate weapon

democracy functions insofar as individuals can participate meaningfully in the public arena, meanwhile running their own affairs, individually and collectively, without illegitimate interference by concentrations of power. functioning democracy presupposes relative equality in access to resources – material, informational, and other – a truism as old as Aristotle.

in theory, governments are instituted to serve their “domestic constituencies” and are to be subject to their will. a measure of functioning democracy, then, is the extent to which the theory approximates reality, and the “domestic constituencies” genuinely approximate the population.

the “ultimate weapon”: the majority of the population

the most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kinds and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.

Samuel Huntington, in his text american politics, observes that power must remain invisible if it is to be effective: “the architects of power in the united states must create a force that can be felt but not seen. power remains strong when it remains in the dark; exposed to the sunlight it begins to evaporate.”

the us code defines “terrorism” with great clarity, and us law provides sever penalties for the crime. but one will find no working that exempts “the architects of power” from punishment for their exercises of state terror, not to speak of their monstrous clients (as long as they enjoy washington’s good graces): Suharto, Saddam Hussein, Mobutu, Noriega, and others great and small. as the leading human rights organizations point out year after year, virtually all us foreign aid is illegal, from the leading recipient on down the list, because the law bars aid to countries that engage in “systematic torture.” that may be law, but is it the meaning of the law?

ch 7: hordes of vigilantes

one should attend carefully to the fear and desperation of the powerful. they understand very well the potential reach of the “ultimate weapon,” and only hope that those who seek a more free and just world will not gain the same understanding, and put it effectively to use.

_______

the case against Skinner

(via a reference in Adam‘s against the smart city)

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/19711230.htm

Consider now a generalized version of the pseudo-science of the nineteenth century: it is not merely the heathen Chinese who are malleable by nature, but rather all people. Science has revealed that it is an illusion to speak of “freedom” and “dignity.” What a person does is fully determined by his genetic endowment and history of “reinforcement.” Therefore we should make use of the best behavioral technology to shape and control behavior in the common interest.

Skinner assures us repeatedly that his science of behavior is advancing mightily and that there exists an effective technology of control. It is, he claims, a “fact that all control is exerted by the environment” (p. 82). Consequently, “When we seem to turn control over to a person himself, we simply shift from one mode of control to another” (p. 97). The only serious task, then, is to design less “aversive” and more effective controls, an engineering problem. “The outlines of a technology are already clear” (p. 149). “We have the physical, biological, and behavioral technologies needed ‘to save ourselves’; the problem is how to get people to use them” (p. 158).

Claims of the first sort must be evaluated according to the evidence presented for them. In the present instance, this is a simple task, since no evidence is presented, as will become clear when we turn to more specific examples. In fact, the question of evidence is beside the point, since the claims dissolve into triviality or incoherence under analysis. Claims with regard to the inevitability of future discoveries are more ambiguous. Is Skinner saying that, as a matter of necessity, science will show that behavior is completely determined by the environment? If so, his claim can be dismissed as pure dogmatism, foreign to the “nature of scientific inquiry.”

But perhaps Skinner is suggesting merely that the term “scientific understanding” be restricted to the prediction of behavior from environmental conditions. If so, then science may reveal, as it progresses, that “scientific understanding of human behavior,” in this sense, is inherently limited. At the moment we have virtually no scientific evidence and not even the germs of an interesting hypothesis about how human behavior is determined. Consequently, we can only express our hopes and guesses about what some future science may demonstrate. In any event, the claims that Skinner puts forth in this category are either dogmatic or uninteresting, depending on which interpretation we give to them.

Surely no scientist would follow Skinner in insisting on the a priori necessity that scientific investigation will lead to a particular conclusion, specified in advance.

In support of his belief that science will demonstrate that behavior is entirely a function of antecedent events, Skinner notes that physics advanced only when it “stopped personifying things” and attributing to them “wills, impulses, feelings, purposes,” and so on (p. 8). Therefore, he concludes, the science of behavior will progress only when it stops personifying people and avoids reference to “internal states.”

The problem in “design of a culture” is to “make the social environment as free as possible of aversive stimuli” (p. 42), “to make life less punishing and in doing so to release for more reinforcing activities the time and energy consumed in the avoidance of punishment” (p. 81). It is an engineering problem, and we could get on with it if only we could overcome the irrational concern for freedom and dignity. What we require is the more effective use of the available technology, more and better controls. In fact, “A technology of behavior is available which would more successfully reduce the aversive consequences of behavior, proximate or deferred, and maximize the achievements of which the human organism is capable” (p. 125). But “the defenders of freedom oppose its use,” thus contributing to social malaise and human suffering. It is this irrationality that Skinner hopes to persuade us to overcome.

The most obvious form of control of this benign type is differential wages. It is, of course, incorrect to say that the “literature of freedom” has overlooked such controls. Since the industrial revolution, it has been much concerned with the problems of “wage slavery” and the “benign” forms of control that rely on deprivation and reward rather than direct punishment. This concern clearly distinguishes the literature of freedom from Skinner’s social concepts.

the work ethic

Or consider freedom of speech. Skinner’s approach suggests that control of speech by direct punishment should be avoided, but that it is entirely appropriate for speech to be controlled, say, by restricting good jobs to people who say what is approved by the designer of the culture. In accordance with Skinner’s ideas, there would be no violation of “academic freedom” if promotions were granted only to those who conform, in their speech and writing, to the rules of the culture, though it would be wrong to go farther and punish those who deviate by saying what they believe to be true. Such deviants must simply remain in a state of deprivation. In fact, by giving people strict rules to follow, so that they know just what to say to be “reinforced” by promotion, we will be “making the world safer” and thus achieving the ends of behavioral technology (pp. 74 and 81). The literature of freedom would, quite properly, reject and abhor such controls.

In fact, there is nothing in Skinner’s approach that is incompatible with a police state in which rigid laws are enforced by people who are themselves subject to them and the threat of dire punishment hangs over all.

Skinner even offers some indications, perhaps unintentionally, of how this benign environment might be brought into being:

A state which converts all its citizens into spies or a religion which promotes the concept of an all-seeing God makes escape from the punisher practically impossible, and punitive contingencies are then maximally effective. People behave well although there is no visible supervision. (Pp. 67-68.)

But in the delightful culture we have just designed there should be no aversive consequences, immediate or deferred. Unwanted behavior would be eliminated from the start by the threat of the crematoria and the all-seeing spies. Thus all behavior would be automatically “good,” as required. There would be no punishment. Everyone would be reinforced — differentially, of course, in accordance with his ability to obey the rules.

Perhaps, as the classical literature of freedom and dignity sometimes suggests, there is an intrinsic human inclination toward free creative inquiry and productive work, and humans are not merely dull mechanisms formed by a history of reinforcement and behaving predictably with no intrinsic needs apart from the need for physiological satiation. Then humans are not fit subjects for manipulation, and we will seek to design a social order accordingly. But we cannot, at present, turn to science for insight into these matters. To claim otherwise is pure fraud. For the moment, an honest scientist will admit at once that we understand virtually nothing, at the level of scientific inquiry, with regard to human freedom and dignity.

pluralistic ignorance ness

Of course, they are not free. Sanctions backed by force restrict freedom, as does differential reward. An increase in wages, in Marx’s phrase, “would be nothing more than a better remuneration of slaves, and would not restore, either to the worker or to the work, their human significance and worth.”

The inference remains absurd even where we can predict the course of action that most “autonomous men” would select, under conditions of extreme duress and limited opportunity for survival. The absurdity merely becomes more obvious when we consider the real social world, in which determinable “probabilities of response” are so slight as to have virtually no predictive value. And it would be not absurd but grotesque to argue that since circumstances can be arranged under which behavior is quite predictable — as in a prison, for example, or the concentration camp society “designed” above — therefore there need be no concern for the freedom and dignity of “autonomous man.” When such conclusions are taken to be the result of a “scientific analysis,” one can only be amazed at human gullibility.

Skinner confuses “science” with terminology. He apparently believes that if he rephrases commonplace “mentalistic” expressions with terminology derived from the laboratory study of behavior, but deprived of whatever content this terminology has within this discipline, then he has achieved a scientific analysis of behavior. It would be hard to conceive of a more striking failure to comprehend even the rudiments of scientific thinking. The public may well be deceived, in view of the prestige of science and technology. It may even choose to be misled into agreeing that concern for freedom and dignity must be abandoned, perhaps out of fear and a sense of insecurity about the consequences of a serious concern for freedom and dignity. The tendencies in our society that lead toward submission to authoritarian rule may prepare individuals for a doctrine that can be interpreted as justifying it.

__________

half way on education…

has to be from desire

whether or not intent is this.. it’s preparing people to be obedient/followers rather than thinkers.. knowing history et al

much is left out or mistold – Zinn

_________

it’s turning us into individuals that devote our lives to achieving a rank

economic man – rationally calculates what do to to increase your wealth, maximize # of goods that you have.. because that’s what you can measure.. improve your human capital.. what you can sell on the market.. what kind of human being is that?…  the ones who don’t develop those characteristic are considered behavior problems.. et al..

these aren’t just ideas.. but a huge industry… massive.. starts with infants..

_________

jan 2015 – Noam on american sniper:

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/26/noam_chomsky_on_the_terrifying_american_sniper_mentality/

_________

language

_________

2002 – power and terror (video) via thought maybe site

http://thoughtmaybe.com/power-and-terror/

patriotism that translates into loyalty and subordination

10  min – there can’t be a war on terrorism

1989 – bush attack kills 3000  – operation just cause – panama – seen as terrorist attrosity

9-11 a historic event but not because of the scale.. based on the people that were effected

16 min – what do they hate us when we’re so good – g bush

19 min – 1958 – accurate that we have regimes of control… campaign of hatred against us by the people in east – people just don’t like being ground into dust – leads to hatred – same as what they discovered sept 14th..

20 min – everybody’s worried about stopping terrorism – there’s an easy way.. stop participating in it

21 min – why turkey willing to help us – because we (clinton) offered support for their massive terrorism

22 min – the fact that western intellectuals look at this and not say anything.. is really impressive testimonial to the discipline of educated people – a rather striking fact about the west – extremely dramatic..

24 min – us in s nam – no one even know – it’s ok for that to go unmentioned..

25 min – a crime is a war crime if the germans did it and we didn’t –

31 min – us domination is good for the rest of the world.. whoever you are.. leaders explain.. you are representing histories best if you’re leading the world

33 min – at nam – no one protested.. it was just what was done..

36 mi – reflection of public concern is opening up media – govt has no influence over media… the govt can’t tell the media what to do

whoa.. opposite of that last documentary – John Pilger.. am i misunderstanding..?

44 min – first article i wrote age 10, feb 1939 on fascism …. time of viet nam war – i get back into things.. and i know very well you can’t do these things part time.. kill 60-70000 people – no body listening, by 1965 – became big issue… but protest were met with violent response.. ie: attack on protest praised in media, wasn’t until late 1966 that there was enough change… for protestors

another interesting thing about vietnam war – we know no numbers of the veitnamese..

52 min on israel and suicide bombers

53 mi – best way to control people is by fear…

56 min – bush and blair – got to get hussain… used chemical weapons on his own people.. which is bad.. but with the support of us and britain

57 min – incomprehensible that we apply to ourselves what we apply to others

59 min – on speaking truth to power… 1) power already knows the truth 2) wrong audience.. you have to speak truth to those who can help distill power  3) we don’t know truth

1:01 – we have a responsibility to afghanistan.. we shouldn’t be giving them aid we should be paying reparations..

1:02 – linguistics.. no relation to study of world affairs.. neg – it’s taken away time. however – aspects of human capacities

1:04 – any one who takes any stand on anything… you’re taking that position because you think it’s good for people… when you’re dealing with anything about human beings.. you’re always on the surface

1:06 – it’s not a pretty world.. but i think things have improved… and we have every opportunity open to us… it’s just a question of whether you want to pursue them

___________

noam on democracy now mar 2015:

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/3/2/noam_chomsky_opposing_iran_nuclear_deal

fear as driving force through history

israel having nuclear warfare for 50 yrs..

“ISIS is a monstrosity,”..it didn’t come from nowhere. It’s one of the results of the U.S. hitting a very vulnerable society — Iraq — with a sledgehammer.”

__________

feb 2015:

on Life & Love: Still Going at 86, Renowned Dissident is Newly Married

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/3/3/noam_chomsky_on_life_love_still

life without love is a pretty empty affair

not an obligation .. a privilege.. these are the important people in the world

Zinn – countless number of unknown people who are the driving force of history and progress…

__________

filmed 2003 – rebel without a pause – via thought maybe site (1:13:36):

http://thoughtmaybe.com/rebel-without-a-pause/

1993 – list of top 10 authorities in us academic journals in previous 7 yrs: – marx. linen. shakespeare. aristotle, bible , plato, freud, chomsky, hegel, ciscorel

when confronted Noam with this.. if i’m a persona that attracts people.. the world’s in trouble.., ie: i’m a boring speaker and i like it that way, not fancy, .. what it is is … people are interested in the issues.. and they’re interested in the issues because they’re important..

love the insight/interspersings of Carol..

7 min – march 1990 – happy with hussain. supply with weapons. aug 1990 he disobeys orders. all description were accurate.. except words left out: and we helped him (on hussain)

19 min – on starting to control outside of work time.. mind control.. since physical force no longer working

29 min – to divert attention – frighten people.. you don’t want people to think.. you want them to be terrified… so they willingly join in with the war thinking

35 min – it was powerful because people accepted it – internal repression

37 min – neighborhood fear (unfounded) – alarms et al – but to break down solidarity… private schools – competition.. to eliminate perception we should care about others.. social security based on a principal that you care about widow down the street.. so privatize soc secruity.. gets people interested in ie: stocks.. committed to undermining your own interests.. and also make people afraid of each other… so you’ll buy alarm systems.. ways of controlling people.. that’s why fear of crime is so high in the u.s… it’s not because of crime.. it’s  because it’s manufactured..

40 min – Carol on how Noam inspires when people ask – what can we do – he says – what you’re doing, ie: lead an activist life.

45 min – do you teach people or do you learn from them

46 min – what is the idea situation for everyone

47 min – we can’t deny who we are…

50 min – Carol – he’s inondated with speaking engagements since 9-11 – people are hungering for hearing another analysis

terrorism is ok if we do it to them.. not if they do it to us..

55 min – if your’e interested in terrorism.. you should look at causes.. and you can’t do that .. that’s rationalizations.. but if you do look at it.. you have to look in the mirror

56 min – only by amnesia – orwell attributed to ed system.. that it’s not clear

59 min – cuba holds record for target of terrorism for last 40 yrs…

1:01 – (someone else speaking about chomsky): on the few who are brave enough to speak truth.. an intellectual/academic using all resources for justice… while the rest of us seek higher paying jobs and continue to speak in our arcane verbiage

1:07 – Carol – the hardest part for him is exhaustion

_________

love Noam’s response here (mar 2015) at 25 min (shared by Michel):

via http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/03/10/ezra-levant-noam-chomsky-the-rebel_n_6842800.html

neither denying it nor avoiding it.. trying to understand it.

it’s easy to scream at people you don’t like. it’s more serious to try to understand what they’re doing and take action to prevent it. if you want to scream that’s fine.

___________

.@AltRadio interviews @NoamChomsky about nuclear weapons and climate change for #LannanFoundation lecture series  http://t.co/CtmmqYqANR

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/haymarketbooks/status/580777582011891712

___________

documentary coming out in april 2015 – Requiem For The American Dream

Directed by Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott, the film is constructed from four years worth of interviews with Chomsky, and explores the growing inequality in the country and what that means for stability, democracy, and more.

Profoundly personal and thought provoking, REQUIEM is a potent reminder that power ultimately rests in the hands of the governed – and is required viewing for all who maintain hope in a shared stake in the future.

trailer:

________

convo mar 2015 – at asu:

Chomsky & Krauss: An Origins Project Dialogue

led protest of vietnam war – and since been marginalized in media

talking of Noam and Richard (wrote a book about him)

Noam’s respect and generosity to people..

8 min – on looking forward to college – then finding out it was much the same

10 min – on persuasion as violence

teaching as a seduction..

16 min – similarity of chemistry and linguistics

18 min – 99% of use of language never even gets expressed – it’s internal – it takes a tremendous act of will – not to do what we call – talking to yourself

talk to self

22 min – shift from external to internal.. observable to not so

24 min – when allowed self to be puzzled – (begin of modern science – 1950s) – realize you know nothing – rather than everything… when start asking what’s going on in the internal..

26 min – important thing about language is not communication.. not external but internal… traditional view – language used in formulating thought.. modern view – language evolved as instrument of communication –

28 min – animal and human communication systems differ radically; human language – free creative activity – can be used for communication but primarily just used for thinking – internally – design of language -..

externalization is kind of peripheral to language..

..core principles… how you construct/interpret thoughts.. the way it’s externalize doesn’t enter into that.. language is fundamentally – audible (or whatever sensory modality) thought..

30 min – huge literature on evolution of language – very curious – because subject doesn’t exist – languages change but they don’t evolve.. what evolves is the capacity for language – which is something in your head..

language

32 min – the capacity for language is virtually identical across all humans…

35 min – getting internal snowflake out of your mouth – very complicated process…

38 min – the ability to be puzzled about what you see – you don’t learn to have arms and legs – you’re designed that way

39 min – we don’t learn how to see – we are born with sight

42 min – susan curtiss – and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_%28feral_child%29

she was very clever – she was deceiving scientists that she was acquiring language

no studies on language, can study on sight – because our sight similar to animals we can study.. no other with language like ours

44 min – bee communication system

48 min – language and freedom – asked to write that article – which he has a lot to say about language and a lot to say about freedom – but not much to say about and

52 min – strong weight of evidence against pinker claims – ie: brian ferguson – one thing he said – in our lifetime – since enlightenment – there has been moral progress – at the same time – creation of device that could destroy us all

55 min – rousseau – unique about humans – internal creative capacity

56 min – any institutions that inhibit or constrain that free creative capacity are fundamentally illegitimate unless they can justify themselves…. any hierarchy – whatever – should be subject to challenge – they’re not self-justifying

58 min – any form of authority/domination requires justification and usually you can’t justify it..in which case you need to dismantle it 

58 min – in 1966 wrote – responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies

has been a driving force

1:01 – on intellectuals..

1:04 – ones that were popularized – were later called false prophets

1:06 – we grow up with illusions (every great power) that our country is the best

1:08 – privilege confers opportunity and opportunity responsibility… to challenge structural arrangements.. not only challenging but doing something about it.. and i think a 5 yr old would understand it

1 yr to be 5 ness

1:11 – a machinery that makes it difficult to see what’s actually happened/happening – a trifling fraction of the population that understand… this process of engineering consent –

1:14 – power remains strong when in the dark

1:17 – not a crime if u.s. did it..

1:20 – basis of our wealth – slavery – during time of little tech advance… just upping the workers

1:22 – where did rise of islamic state come from? – our impositions.. ie: iraq.. et al.. it didn’t come from nowhere

1:38 – clarify individual vs institutional stupidity/irrationality.. ie: davos – when asked as group didn’t include climate but did include regulation…

1:40 – we as individuals have the capacity to modify and overcome institutions.. that’s the element of hope

part 2

5 min – consciousness – not that difficult – pre-consciousness is

8 min – turing – asking whether machines think is not worth discussion.. like asking if submarines think.. these are terminological questions… not an answer to the question of whether machines think.. it’s not a legit question

13 min – as soon as you start doing scientific work – you depart from language…. aiming to pick out something external.. create a system that does have literal reference.. symbols.. that’s already departing from language…

14 min – math at the appropriate language.. metaphorically … of science.. symbolic system that has some of the similarities of language.. created

34 min – this (u.s.) has always been a very frightened country.. for very good reason.. slaves/indigenous fighting back

37 min – 1967 – conflict in arab world.. u.s. supports radicalist islam… threat that country would go toward independence .. if you’re trying for global control… and oil. … 1970 – u.s. keep syria from helping jordan with palestinians.. ask israel to help… it did and u.s. aid to israel quadrupled that year

___________

april 2015 – Every Word in the Phrase ‘Free Trade Agreement’ Is False

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/noam_chomsky_every_word_in_the_phrase_free_trade_agreement_false_20150422

9 min – on ip – not free trade.. not agreements…

12 min – basic income

14 min – 2 dangers – 1\ environmental (taking good steps: denmark, germany) 2\ nuclear war – (nuclear expanding trillions)

18 min – in europe – austerity programs are extremely destructive

_________

sept 2015 – speaking at new school:

on trump et al..

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/22/noam_chomsky_on_trump_we_should

on orwell – on thought control under freedom..

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/22/noam_chomsky_on_the_myth_of

on biggest threat to peace: u.s.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/22/noam_chomsky_the_united_states_not

there also happens to be a world out there… international opinion – gravest threat to world peace – u.s. by a huge margin.. way behind in 2nd place pakistan.. iran is mentioned along w israel and a few others way down

________
oct 2015 interview

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33023-noam-chomsky-on-the-potential-for-ordinary-people-to-make-radical-change

How can one mobilize a large number of people on such complex issues?

It’s not that complex. The task of organizers and activists is to help people understand and to make them recognize that they have power, that they’re not powerless. People feel impotent, but that has to be overcome. That’s what organizing and activism is all about.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails, but there aren’t any secrets. It’s a long-term process – it has always been the case. And it’s had successes. Over time there’s a kind of a general trajectory towards a more just society, with regressions and reversals of course.

[..]

History doesn’t go in a straight line.

why reasons people are saying blockchain could work for us.. may not be the reason it could work for us.. ie: chronological ness… – io dance ness

____________

oct 2015 – abby-martin-electing-the-president-of-an-empire/ – 30 min film

http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/noam-chomsky-and-abby-martin-electing-the-president-of-an-empire/

plutocracy – via campaign finance – 8 min ish

16 min – what right do we have to kill people in other countries that we don’t like..

19 min – why do we have the right to invade another country

__________

mar 2016 – next system interviewing Noam on organizing for next system:

http://thenextsystem.org/conversation_with_noam_chomsky/

Students typically are at a period of their lives when they’re more free than at any other time. They’re out of parental control. They’re not yet burdened by the needs of trying to put food on the table in a pretty repressive environment, often, and they’re free to explore, to create, to invent, to act, and to organize. Over and over through the years, student activism has been extremely significant in initiating and galvanizing major changes. I don’t see any reason for that to change.

[..]

The human species is now at a point where it has to make choices that are going to determine whether decent survival is even possible. Environmental catastrophe, including war, maybe pandemics, these are very serious issues and they can’t be addressed within the current structure of institutions.

[..]

Just take the last crash. One of the consequences was the government basically took over the auto industry. They had some choices. One choice was the one that was taken: tax payroll, bailout the owners and managers, and then restore the system to what it was. Maybe new names, but essentially the same structure, and have them continue to do the same thing: produce automobiles. That was one choice. That was what was taken. There was another choice. The other choice was to hand the system over to the workforce, have it democratically controlled and managed, and have the production oriented toward what the community needs. We don’t need more cars. We need effective mass transportation for lots of reasons.

[..]

A market gives you choice among consumer goods, say a Ford and a Toyota. It doesn’t give you a choice between an automobile and a decent mass transportation system.

[..]

My feeling is it’s not really remote. I think most of these things are right below the surface in people’s consciousness. It has to be brought forward. This is true of many issues incidentally. It’s very important to recognize how unresponsive the political economic system is to people’s attitudes.

[..]

If popular opinion can be organized, mobilized, with institutions of interaction and solidarity, like unions, then I think what’s right below the surface can become quite active and implemented as policy.

and/or freed… from thinking w/in confines… w/in need for consensus even… ie: no need for popular opinion… just organize people according to their own idiosyncratic thinking..

[..]

It’s pretty hard to remember maybe, but if you go back to the early industrial revolutions, the late 19th century, wage labor was considered essentially the same as slavery. The only difference was that it was supposed to be temporary. That was a slogan of the Republican party: opposition to wage slavery. Why should some people give orders and others take them? That’s essentially the relation of a master and a slave, even if it could be temporary.

[..]

People in Central America and Mexico, people are fleeing to the United States. Why? Because we destroyed their societies. They don’t want to live in the United States. They want to live at home. We should be acting in solidarity with them, first of all to certainly permit them to be here if that’s the way they can save themselves from the conditions that we’ve imposed, but also to help them reconstruct their own societies.

a nother way

for (blank)’s sake…

_____________

mar 30 2016 – conversation on privacy (notes/link here) between Glenn, Ed and Noam

_____________

june 2016

@yanisvaroufakis

A discussion with Noam Chomsky worth revisiting at this post-Brexit juncture @nypl @holdengraber yanisvaroufakis.eu/2016/06/24/a-d…

from april 26 convo with Yanis

11 min – noam: neoliberalism is not new and it’s not liberal

14 min – noam: cutting edge of econ has shifted from tech to bio.. at unis.. and that’s called free market.. quite ironic

16 min – yanis: theft of land from native americans.. would have never happened without the brutal intervention of the state which created the process of privatization of land.. and so commodification

20 min – noam: there have been places where sound econ was applied… liberal policies.. it’s called the third world.. and it’s not an accident.. ie: global south.. developed by japan.. the one country not colonized…et al… pattern is just uniform.. but hasn’t enter econ theory.. wonder why

21 min – yanis: why.. econ in uni’s was began to evolve from 1950s on as queen of social sciences… what gave power.. monopoly power….was claim that it was the only social theory that was peddling universal truths to be proven by math means… and it succeeded.. so ie: economist always got the grant.. in order to close model mathematically.. only way to solve is by making assumptions .. ie: have to assume no time, no space.. because if allow time/space to interfere with model.. end up with indeterminism. a system of equation that can’t be solved… because infinity of possible solutions.. no predictive power..so more successful econ’s were of creating models that said precisely nothing about capitalism.. the greater success in academy.. so opposite of intellectuals you’ve been writing about they create wonderful abstract models.. but don’t expect to find truth of capitalism in its form..

25 min – yanis: i blame them for creating the math models.. the sermons.. proving that it was riskless.. to allow them the strength to do more damage than would have done otherwise

26 min – yanis: he’s story of driving speed limit.. sees police.. slows.. then go back to speed…

27 min – yanis: not that econ’s went head long in this mathematical religion.. w a bit of bad stats.. 1/ there was a kind of ethnic cleansing.. but never got grants et al  2\ the ones that created.. ie: the popes.. were not the believers.. ie: one interrupting speaker of .. and his response..my dear boy.. you are confusing that which is interesting with that which is useful.. this is interesting.. if you apply to anything real..

30 min – yanis: imagine a world in which econ policy is predicated on models that assume no time/space/et al… it’s time to get really scared..

30 min – yanis: wikileaks leak convo between paul thompson..and.. they are admitting (imf ness).. money not really for them.. not really expecting to get it back.. et al..

33 min – yanis: i was trying to find a formula .. i go to paul thompson.. i wanted to make things work.. rather than clash.. and he said.. no this is too mild.. we need to take large chunk of your debt and write it off.. so at this level.. even w leadership of imf.. you got the understanding they knew what they had done.. a nasty deed.. and they were trying to do something about it.. but when came to final settlement.. as creditors remained loyal to one another.. high up in imf..after 10 hrs of negotiations.. in end..’yanis you are right.. policies were trying to impose upon you cannot work… deep down.. i really want to think that the adults know what they are doing.. but people at top have no idea what they are doing.. maybe they know more than i think they do.. they said to me.. but yanis.. you must understand..we have invested so much political capital.. we can’t go back.. and  your credibility depends on accepting it…

aside – twitter convo going on while i’m listening to this..

@nathanjurgenson

“academics urgently need to ponder why such a significant chunk of the population has come to distrust them” timeshighereducation.com/blog/brexit-wo…

@zeynep

@nathanjurgenson @csoghoian Our fault=~20%? Rest is relentless propaganda. Big chunks mistrusts climate change, evolution, Obama US citizen.

@nathanjurgenson @csoghoian We’ve faced a calculated assault on science, facts & critical thought. This isn’t merely because of jargon etc.

36 min – noam: imf own econ’s saying these policies are destructive..

37 min – yanis: i quoted chapter and verse.. counter to productivity.. concluded labor market reforms.. been pushed down throat when don’t work..

39 min – yanis: when we created a common currency/central bank but w/o state to correspond.. they decided.. every now and then finance ministers.. should get together and coordinate..

43 min – at some point troika inside euro group.. set the scene..

47 min – yanis quoting imf guy: i don’t need to theorize.. we have discipline to look after..

50 min – yanis: when do currency first and political after.. huge error

52 min – noam quoting greenspan – success based on growing worker insecurity

53 min – yanis: 1953 story – cold war and increasing authoritarianism – athens.. attempt to prevent another great depression… called 1949 moment…20 yrs after last depression.. and sat down to prevent it from happening.. plan entailed.. europe would be dolarized.. allowed to create own currencies.. dollar in diff form..

57 min – yanis: on surplus recycling.. to maintain the global plan.. an extension of the new deal..

1:01 – yanis: end of book – optimism.. my mother would have slaughtered anyone who said.. the weak suffer what they must

1:04 – noam – optimism in book – – power goes back to mind of the masses if they take it.. if we inquire into the means.. it is by consent alone that the powerful are able to govern..

disengage from consensus ness

1:10 – yanis – now prospect.. we had a window of opp for a reboot.. we missed that.. this is why and some other utopians… throughout europe created diem.. that noam signed… i think we are in a 1930 moment..

1:13 – q&a

__________

@johncusack

Noam Chomsky on Anarchism, Communism and Revolutions ln.is/www.truth-out.… via @truthout

Perhaps a point will come where violence in defense against forceful efforts to maintain power is warranted. Surely it is a last resort.

[..]

The terms of political discourse are not models of precision.

a nother way

that doesn’t put people on hold.. via ism ness.. verbiage ness.. et al

[..]

What any of this has to do with socialism depends on how one interprets that battered term.

[..]

The incoming Kennedy administration carried out the Bay of Pigs invasion.

61 ness

Despite the attack, Cuba has developed a remarkable health system, and has an unmatched record of medical internationalism — as well as playing a crucial role in the liberation of Black Africa and ending the apartheid regime [in South Africa].

[..]

Since its origins, socialism has meant the liberation of working people from exploitation.

and/or perhaps via.. getting away from work ness

[..]

But the essential element of the socialist ideal remains: to convert the means of production into the property of freely associated producers and thus the social property of people who have liberated themselves from exploitation by their master, as a fundamental step towards a broader realm of human freedom.

___________

Noam Chomsky refutes right-libertarianism [full] https://t.co/Sf4IpKjRWT via @YouTube

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/mbauwens/status/758669679929942017

17 min compilation of Noam refuting right-libertarianism

9 min – markets offer individual consumption.. masked as choice..

14 min – on need of a central bank.. otherwise in deep depression..

?

the debt/deficit is not a serious problem.. it would be overcome by actual growth

?

real problem.. is the fct that the economy is so grotesque that you have 10s of millions of people wanting to work and not able to … huge financial corps.. money.. work.. resources… and econ is so dysfunctional.. can’t put them together…

___________

@sadiesniece (rt by johncusack)

@johncusack Noam Chomsky – Optimism youtu.be/maSICEWgT98

pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.. there are possibilities.. let’s pursue them

___________
sept 2016 – evidence rebuts chomsky’s theory of language – shared on fb by roger

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/evidence-rebuts-chomsky-s-theory-of-language-learning/

Recently, though, cognitive scientists and linguists have abandoned Chomsky’s “universal grammar” theory in droves because of new research examining many different languages—and the way young children learn to understand and speak the tongues of their communities. T

[..]

didn’t read it all yet

_____________

WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) tweeted at 5:54 AM – 4 Oct 2016 :

Noam Chomsky on @WikiLeaks 10 Years of Publishing https://t.co/u9e5ecGaMc #chomsky (here with philosopher Srecko Horvat) https://t.co/8RWWuhMM4O (http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/783274083492429824?s=17)

____________

chomsky unravels political mechanics behind his gradual expulsion from mainstream media

http://www.alternet.org/media/noam-chomsky-unravels-political-mechanics-behind-his-gradual-expulsion-mainstream-media

The irony of Chomsky’s media criticism being dismissed by the media is not lost on the former MIT professor, who remains in awe of America’s level of censorship.

______________

from sept 2016 talk (1 hr)

Haymarket Books (@haymarketbooks) tweeted at 6:47 PM on Mon, Oct 17, 2016:
Video: Noam Chomsky On Power and Ideology https://t.co/lQxTzQVOHb https://t.co/SO88mPDGwv
(https://twitter.com/haymarketbooks/status/788179607858077696?s=03)

standing o at beginning – him being helped on stage.. oh my

for first time in human history necessary to make a crucial decision.. will org’d human life continue to exist on earth or not.. that’s in near future… 2 eminent threats:

1\ aug 6 1945 means to destroy selves – humanity entered into new era – the nuclear age.. won’t last long.. soon we will bring it to an end or it will bring us to an end.. appalling..  1983 most serious incident.. we have just recently learned more about it.. new revelations have to do with nuclear command exercise.. in effort to probe russian defenses.. reagan.. an attack on russia.. leading up to a pretend nuclear attack at moment of extreme international tension.. beruits deciding to do nothing – from orders – diverting nuclear war.. then another deciding to do nothing.. record reveals many such frightening episodes..

2\ global warming.. same date.. end of ww2 of critical significance.. geologists recognize earth entering into new era – anthropocene – huge human impact on environment..  period of 6th mass extinction… 5th was asteroid hitting earth.. ending age of dinosaurs..  distinguish from other extinctions.. now focus on larger animals/orgs..

16 min – ww2 changed who was in power – econ imperialism of us elbowing people out.. americans believe that us stands for something in world.. something world needs/likes.. post war position of global dominance (us) couldn’t be maintained.. leading to more diverse international system.. but us still uniquely powerful… by 1970..financially less prominent.. but still colossally huge

19 min – global wealth.. us corps well in lead.. not far below 50%… (ie: iphone.. apple gets 10x as much profit as places iphones are actually manufactured).. so importance of focus on us policy is real..

23 min – obama’s trill dollar plan to upgrade nuclear weapons..

29 min –Richard Sakwa: nato’s mission today is to manage the risks created by its existence… worth thinking about ..

31 min – fate of nato since end of cold war.. presented all along as necessary to hold of russian hoards..

1981 – harvard prof samuel huntington: ‘you may have to sell intervention or other military action in such a way to create the misimpression that it is the soviet union you are fighting.. that’s what u.s. has done ever since truman doctrine in 41’

32 min – mounting threat of war –

34 min – 3 min to midnight.. (closest since 81 crisis) added environmental crisis to nuclear

35 min – astonishing fact.. that major political org in most powerful country in world history is literally dedicated to destruction of much of life on earth…

36 min – has there ever been a more dangerous org in history than today’s republican party.. i think the answer is no… and worse still no commentary on this.. that astonishing blindness.. extends well beyond..

38 min – hard to find words to capture the enormity of this extraordinary blindness..

40 min – that threat of global warming can be effectively overcome is less clear.. decisions about these matters.. most important decisions in human history.. cannot be delayed…

41 min – starts q&a

41 min – snowden should not just be pardoned.. he should be honored.. maybe washington should be pardoned… simply performed actions of citizen concerned about his country and people of the world..

43 min- what’s called the refugee crisis is actually a moral crisis… migrant crisis from europe destroyed indigenous population.. today there are countries that are absorbing huge numbers of refugees..lebanon had nothing to do with engendering the crisis.. but is taking huge consequences.. our role in creating crisis is even greater..

44 min – so on one hand- rich powerful countries which have played major role in creating crisis.. groaning because may have to accept tiny bit of consequences.. and poor countries which had nothing to do w crisis which are absorbing the refugees.. that’s a moral crisis..

49 min – brazil – soft coup.. not military.. a quasi parliamentary coup.. removed from office the one political figure who has not been implicated in corruption scandal.. people voting to impeach her.. almost all of whom under serious charge.. impeachment went thru nevertheless  (info from wife who is brazilian)

52 min – when asked about what to do if want to go to uni and can’t afford it.. he said shouldn’t address just for one person.. should be asking why are there costs for higher ed.. why isn’t it like secondary ed.. that’s not a strange question.. not an econ basis for it…

go deeper.. why ed.. why pkg deal ed..? we’re paying for the pkg ness.. which is killing us..

55 min – so answer to question.. individual is stuck.. but part of a collection.. not stuck.. ie: can’t go bankrupt.. trapped for life.. highly disciplinary action

56 min – q on ai.. doing very little from scientific view.. achieving a lot for engineering.. but not leading insight into nature of intelligence.. so a valuable pursuit if useful.. if part of science.. just part of ordinary cognitive science… but be cautious of evaluating the pr associated with it.. which is quite remote from actuality… now there are threats in ai..ie: weapon system.. if weapon systems become automated.. we’re in deep trouble.. cannot be made reliable..  we know u.s. record is fairly open.. and literally 100s of cases where automated detection systems.. gave wrong answer of misfire.. and within minutes of responding.. that’s a serious problem.. extremely dangerous as is the weapon system itself..

1:00 – the fear/idea that robotics will displace working people.. no evidence for that at all.. look around country.. there’s a huge amount of work to be done.. ie: city, education, research, plenty of idle hands.. resources to do the work.. but the system is so corrupt it can’t put them together.. u.s. has much less leisure than other co’s..

1:01 – is there ever a role for benevolent imperialism.. oxymoron.. like a benevolent slave owner.. better than mean one.. but oxymoron.. impossible..

1:02 – q: what gives hope… a: people like you… plenty of problems.. but they can be addressed.. and people like you can address them.. that’s where the hope is..

_______

nov 2016 interview

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/education/edlife/on-being-noam-chomsky.html?_r=0

How do you account for your amazing stamina and energy level at age 87?

The bicycle theory. As long as you keep riding, you don’t fall.

_________

@ideas

35 Noam Chomsky quotes that will make you question everything about our society: buff.ly/2f72DNs

We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.

if children[‘s] … normal interest is maintained or even aroused, they can do all kinds of things in ways we don’t understand.

smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum..gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced

The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all of the people

Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience.

“The number of people killed by the sanctions in Iraq is greater than the total number of people killed by all weapons of mass destruction in all of history.

Science is a bit like the joke about the drunk who is looking under a lamppost for a key that he has lost on the other side of the street, because that’s where the light is. It has no other choice.”

“In fact, the belief that neurophysiology is even relevant to the functioning of the mind is just hypothesis. Who knows if we’re looking at the right aspects of the brain at all.

science of people in schools ness

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me. I mean, 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. If you ask the CEO of some major corporation what he does he will say, in all honesty, that he is slaving 20 hours a day to provide his customers with the best goods or services he can and creating the best possible working conditions for his employees. But then you take a look at what the corporation does, the effect of its legal structure, the vast inequalities in pay and conditions, and you see the reality is something far different.

It is important to bear in mind that political campaigns are designed by the same people who sell toothpaste and cars.

__________

New Scientist (@newscientist) tweeted at 5:12 AM – 5 Nov 2016 :

When politics fills the language gap, can science be neutral? https://t.co/5iWqXljLJZ https://t.co/kY5sY8V9a3(http://twitter.com/newscientist/status/794859839600136193?s=17)

WE ALL speak the same language, according to the linguist Noam Chomsky. A Martian scientist, he has observed, “might reasonably conclude that there is a single human language, with differences only at the margins”.

To Earthlings, however, such differences often look anything but marginal. For some, they are barriers to be overcome. But for many others, they are borders to control and identities to be kept apart.

[..]

In his new book Decoding Chomsky, Knight (who mounts his own critique from a position on the radical left) argues that Chomsky needed to deny any connection between his science and his politics in order to practise both while based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an institution that was heavily funded by the US military.

[..]

Language “is not properly regarded as a system of communication”, he declared. “It is a system for expressing thought, something quite different.” In this view of language, other people are peripheral. As far as Chomsky is concerned, says Knight, language “exists for talking to just one person – yourself“. Other workers in the field do not deny the social implications of their studies, but opt to leave them unspoken.

language

[..]

Trenchant and compelling as Knight’s critique of Chomsky is, few scientists would follow him all the way to his concluding vision of science united with revolutionary politics. But maybe it wouldn’t hurt for researchers to hint at their personal values. After all, as climate scientists know only too well, they will be suspected of bias however strictly they stick to the data.

________

via diem25

@DiEM_25

Barcelona: 05/11 Noam Chomsky:“Crises of Immigration” live streaming in English at gcm.unu.edu from 18:00 local time. #DiEM25

reach beyond events right before our eyes.. which are shattering enough.. more than 4 000 drowned in med this yr

beyond crises of immigration.. ‘the fate of the hapless which we are exterminating’

contemporary scholarship is just beginning to portray the implications of the slave system.. horrifying

lofty values of western civ still being upheld..

us was known as haven for european immigrants.. even w/in favored europe problems arose from beginning… first barrier was 1924 till 65.. consequences were dire particularly for jews.. 1938 – avion conf was a failed effort.. to deal with plights of jews.. the one enthusiast was hitler: ‘the world which has such deep hope for these criminals.. can convert to practical aid’… only dominican republic and costa rica were to offer help.. green light for genocide.. even after war when holocaust survivors still living in concentration camps.. no longer any question about hideous crimes.. the barriers were maintained.. tells us something about the western values that are coming to the fore again today..

one exception… by poorest countries is turkey..

part of motive for brexit seems to be to make record even worse..

we should never overlook fact that immigration crises today was a textbook ie of criminal aggression w/o any credible pretext..

west could do well to listen to Jackson: we must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow..

ones caused it doing least.. ones who didn’t doing most.. to take care of people

gen attitude of western civ toward this history.. revealed in global planning at end of ww2.. careful plans laid how to org the world.. kissinger: ‘europe and others focus on regional.. while us will manage overall framework of order..’

pope: migrants in severe danger.. we should be devoting ourselves to remedying their plight.. in all many ways we can.. & reflecting on ..physician.. heal thyself..

remarkable comment on the media.. that they don’t comment on what trump ness is headed for.. calling for destruction of the species… he is calling for reducing tensions of russia and china which is huge (& clinton not doing)

when i asked how 50% in us could be for trump.. he answers.. look closer.. and tells of other places falling for demise.. back to us.. part is racism.. neoliberal programs cast aside large numbers of peoples.. ie: benefits/hopes decline.. one result has been contempt for institutions.. and collapse of centrous political parties.. not hard to find sources of these developments.. very serious.. facing very serious crises.. ie: immigrants.. global warming..

how can this be happening.. human species now facing questions never faced before.. on survival.. nothing said about it.. what does that tell you about the organ of info & analysis

the bernie sanders phenom was a very significant development.. for first time candidate came out ..almost unknown.. no corp funding.. no rich people funding.. developed quickly a mass/popular/young following..corbyn phenom in england.. somewhat similar..and these can last.. that’s the hope of the future.. very much alive

actions: 1\ some very easy for rich societies.. ie: if lebanon can accept to point where 40% are immigrants.. 2\ give vastly more humanitarian aid.. a small fraction of wealth of rich countries would suffice..  3\ look at sources of crises.. and ask.. a\ how are we responsible  b\ what can we do to ameliorate them..

if you don’t look at the roots of the problem.. the results will probably be something worse.. that’s been happening over and over for last 15 yrs…

go deeper – deep enough

reflexive action of west.. is to smash with violence..

________

economic democracy (doc)

________

chomsky concision law

Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) tweeted at 5:06 AM – 5 Dec 2016 :

Twitter breeds group-think for many reasons: a big one is “concision” factor Chomsky applied to TV: way worse here https://t.co/KURvozslqF(http://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/805745248236400640?s=17)

Noam Chomsky on Concision in the US Media

the beauty of concision.. is that you can then only repeat conventional thoughts..

suppose you don’t say something that is just regurgitating conventional pieties.. suppose you say something that is the least bit unexpected or controversial… people will quite reasonably expect to know what you mean.. why did you say that.. i never heard that before.. if you said that.. better have a reason/evidence… you can’t give evidence..*if you’re stuck with concision.. that’s the genius of this structural constraint

not to mention if there is no evidence.. which i’m questioning if there ever is .. of anything.. ie: so much of our ‘data’ is not us.. science of people ness

_______

paradox of noam

http://thepowerofideas.ideapod.com/paradox-noam-chomsky-language-power/

_______

google talks – Creating “uninformed consumers”

53 min in

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/07/04/noam-chomsky-flips-the-debate-about-fake-news-on-its-head-in-a-room-full-of-google-staff-video/

57 min – market based on informed consumers making rational choices.. do you see efforts by corporations to create informed consumers making rational choices.. huge amounts of capital are expended every year to try to undermine markets (ie: don’t see car ad with list of characteristics and consumer report of critiques)..  by creating uninformed consumers making irrational choices.. driving them to consumerism which atomizes.. rather than serious things.. it’s not deep.. we all know it.. we just don’t somehow think about it

do you have something you’d like to ask us… noam:

why not do some of the serious things

chomsky serious things law

a nother way

________

Bryan Alexander (@BryanAlexander) tweeted at 5:23 AM – 19 Aug 2017 :

Noam Chomsky to move to the University of Arizona:
https://t.co/YRRpBCoKZs (http://twitter.com/BryanAlexander/status/898868039361232896?s=17)

_______

on language – clip from Noam in is this the tall man happy (Michel Gondry)

Open Culture (@openculture) tweeted at 11:54 PM – 27 Mar 2018 :

Noam Chomsky Describes How Kids Acquire Language in an Animated Video by Michel Gondry https://t.co/SPKiWlBYpbhttps://t.co/trGuoQ2u4N (http://twitter.com/openculture/status/978872909396676609?s=17)

children know a lot about language before they can exhibit it..

during early exposure – 18 months.. where child is not manifesting.. they are acquiring.. not consciously.. .. can understand what saying if can put hand on face

consider 1 day old infant.. a lot of things going on.. how does infant figure out what part of that is language..

________

jjwalsh (@jjwalsh) tweeted at 4:48 AM – 14 May 2018 :
Fantastic- so worth watching!
Donald Trump is a Distraction – Noam Chomsky
https://t.co/4RSzjuDEqh (http://twitter.com/jjwalsh/status/995979063687708674?s=17)

________

Noam Chomsky on Swedish student Elin Ersson, who prevented an Afghan asylum seeker from being deported with her plane protest: “It was a very inspiring act and an indication of what could be achieved by really large scale civil disobedience.” #DNlive https://t.co/dJDdlWxNTO

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/democracynow/status/1022826339760578560

__________

Democracy Now! (@democracynow) tweeted at 12:25 AM – 29 Jul 2018 :
“Israeli intervention in U.S. elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done.” – Noam Chomsky on the 2016 election. https://t.co/GHZwTiDaLq(http://twitter.com/democracynow/status/1023454333600493568?s=17)

47 min – in general.. the media.. & state media.. are focusing on issues that are pretty marginal.. the real question is dealing w roots of immigration; climate change;

chomsky serious things law

51 min – issue of overwhelming concern to media.. elections.. to rest of the world a joke.. 1st.. russia less so than israel ..

_________

via dave gray fb share – article by @dgolumbia:

“Prior to Chomsky, linguistics had been one of the most directly socially-engaged academic fields in the US, and its leading lights were found at universities that generally had many scholars with strong, direct social commitments. After Chomsky, linguistics in the US was headquartered at MIT, became highly technical and even algorithmic, and those whose social and academic commitments were front and center felt, in general, shoved aside.”

https://www.opendemocracy.net/david-golumbia/chomskyan-revolution-and-politics-of-linguistics

I find this aspect of Chomsky’s thought and influence more important than his having received military funding. At the same time, it does seem to have something to say about the harshness of the defenses Chomsky and others make surrounding the topic, as if a clear line can be drawn between “militarily useful” and “non-militarily useful” basic research, when reflection would surely show that very little if any research can be entirely put in one category or the other, and when, among other things, null results (including Chomsky’s work to show that language in many ways can’t be processed by computers) are very helpful in the progress of research.

That Chomsky and his defenders need to show that his work is untainted by the military, when that can only be true in extremely narrow senses, suggests something about their broader conceptual commitments – ones that, in many ways, are not very much in step with most contemporary scientific, to say nothing of humanistic, research programs.

Everyone in the academy is deeply imbricated in complex webs of state and non-state, private and public, military and civilian, funding and power politics. Perhaps oddly, Chomsky is one of the few intellectuals to insist to this day that we can neatly untangle such webs. It is worth reflecting on whether this is part of what made him so influential, and continues to inform his reputation now.

________

Members of Migrant Caravan Are Fleeing from Misery & Horrors Created by the U.S.

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/2/noam_chomsky_members_of_migrant_caravan

“You have this incredible charade taking place, which the world is looking at with utter astonishment: Poor, miserable people, families, mothers, children, fleeing from terror and repression, for which we are responsible, and in reaction, they’re sending thousands of troops to the border.” – Noam Chomsky

_________

noam on diem25

Srećko Horvat (@HorvatSrecko) tweeted at 1:43 PM – 25 May 2019 :
Noam Chomsky on Europe’s historical trajectory and @DiEM25 as one of the most promising forces. Carpe diem! #EP2019 #Europawahl2019 https://t.co/YhC4pOhO3a (http://twitter.com/HorvatSrecko/status/1132371537699495937?s=17)

_______

in Arundhati Roy‘s my seditious heart:

loneliness of chomsky

220

chomsky spoke about his memory of the day hiroshima was bombed. he was 16: ‘i remember that i literally couldn’t talk to anybody. there was nobody. i just walked off by myself. i was at a summer camp at the time, and i walked off into the woods and stayed alone for a couple of hours when i heard about it. i could never talk to anyone about it and never understood anyone’s reaction. i felt completely isolated’

_________

chomsky still teaching at 90 is life goals https://t.co/GQu4eyzm9a
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/zei_nabq/status/1176853043255611393

________

mar 2020 on coronavirus – 30  min video w srecko: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-N3In2rLI4]

virus is serious enough.. but much greater.. racing to edge of disaster far worse than anything that’s happened in history

1\ growing threat of nuclear war

2\ growing threat of global warming

both can be dealt.. but not a lot of time.. will be recovery from virus but not from others

9 min – cuba is helping europe.. words fail.. germany can’t help.. but cuba is.. civilizational crisis of the west is devastating..

s: 2b people at home..

if we want to deal w crisis.. we have to move to something like wartime.. ie: mobilization for 2nd world war.. led to more debt than today.. we need the mentality of social to try to overrun short term crisis

ie: people hungry.. die in quarantine.. a rich country would help.. we have many problems to deal with.. immediate.. and much larger ones..

16 min – good side of virus.. may lead people to think of what kind of world we want.. ie: why is there a coronavirus.. neolib/social problems.. drug co’s handed over our fate to private tyranny’s.. et al.. sars.. body creams more profitable than vaccine for virus

20 min – this virus could have been prevented.. politicians/who.. didn’t pay attention to info they were aware of

24 min – high authoritarianism are quite compatible w neolib – sound econ – could be reinstalled w powerful state violence imposition.. but there is possibility that people will org and bring about much better world.. critical moment in human history

flaws of deep fundamental characteristics of infra.. and its roots

28 min – s: how to progress/org in time of social distancing

29 min – in past few years have been a form of self isolation which is very damaging.. no society has escalated the misuse of sm that has turned people into very isolated creatures

? yeah.. i don’t know

now in form of real social isolation.. has to be done by re creating bonds

like those teenagers have been doing.. ?

a bi lingual parrot.. and dog have convo

________

What he said..
The serious decline of functioning democracy is a virtual corollary of the radical concentration of wealth and dispatch of much of the general population to stagnation and precarity
https://t.co/8kCRSltJhP
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/crowdedfalafel/status/1337881017609236481

when did we ever have functioning democracy? what does that even mean..?

decision making is unmooring us law

There are workable solutions to the crises that humans face in this uniquely dangerous moment of human history

great opp for a re\set.. global systemic change.. (global) do-over.. a chance to re-org us around the essence of human being.. to undo our hierarchical listening

________

chomsky repetition as confession law

_________

nika & noam on pirates

_________

on anarchism

__________

_________

_________

________