“Democracy is always a threat to the powerful.”
— Noam Chomsky
“The 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—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. ”
— Noam Chomsky
“Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.”
— Noam Chomsky
“It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them.”
— Noam Chomsky
“The primary purpose of the media is to mobilize support for the controlling interests.”
— Noam Chomsky
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
— Noam Chomsky
“I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom.”
— Noam Chomsky
“The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.”
— Noam Chomsky
“The people who were really important are the ones whose names are forgotten. And that's true of every movement that ever existed.”
— Noam Chomsky
“A democracy doesn’t use force to control its citizens; it uses propaganda instead.”
— Noam Chomsky
“Hume's paradox does hold: power is in the hands of the governed. If they refuse to accept it, you're in trouble, no matter how many guns you have.”
— Noam Chomsky
“It's a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.”
— Noam Chomsky
“All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.”
— Noam Chomsky
“The picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality. The truth of the matter is buried under edifice after edifice of lies upon lies.”
— Noam Chomsky
“If you are working 50 hours a week in a factory, you don't have time to read 10 newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works.”
— Noam Chomsky
“The respected intellectuals are those who conform and serve power interests.”
— Noam Chomsky
“Of course, everybody says they're for peace. Hitler was for peace. Everybody is for peace. The question is: "What kind of peace?"”
— Noam Chomsky
“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.”
— Noam Chomsky