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Noam Chomsky: We’re no longer a functioning democracy, we’re really a plutocracy

13 points by ABS 13y ago

PhantomGremlin 13y ago
No comments? My impression is: "Ouch". Good (if brief) article. I've always thought that Chomsky was a bit of a kook. But he makes some very good points! The "ouch" is because he makes sense, which contradicts my previous impression of him. The headline seems a bit alarmist or dramatic. However, let's consider recent events. Given the sequester, government shutdown, "nuclear option" in the Senate, and many similar things, it appears to me that we're less of a "functioning democracy" than at anytime in at least the previous 50 or so years. (The article uses much different events to come to this conclusion).
- a3n 13y ago
  > I've always thought that Chomsky was a bit of a kook. If the past six months have taught us anything, it should be that sometimes the kooks are right.
vardump 13y ago
Well... I think what is really happening is that we are globally hitting the resource production rate limits. The only globally sane option is austerity, to balance the monetary reality with the physical reality. If you really have only ten cows, it does not matter whether your bookkeeping says you have 100 or 10000. You still only have ten of them. Unfortunately it is only winning move if all governments implemented it simultaneously, without any of them defecting. Artificially stimulating economy is massively beneficial for the defecting greedy governments (ie. most of them), at cost for all those whose budgets match physical reality. This makes austerity always the losing move for the few who do implement it (think Greece). The probable end result on the current path is massive unemployment and a nearly total economic meltdown or reset. Tragedy of the government commons.
mercer 13y ago
> He also disagreed that a platform in the mainstream media was necessary to influence the debate. > “If you take a look at the progressive changes that have taken place in the country, say, just in the last 50 years – the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, opposition to aggression, the women’s movement, the environmental movement and so on – they’re not led by any debate in the media,” Chomsky said. “No, they were led by popular organizations, by activists on the ground.” I strongly support what Chomsky is doing, not because I agree with him (I often don't), but because he spends most of his time convincing (young) people that grassroots movements and protests are not useless. Most of my peers in their twenties or thirties have strong values, but have a incredibly fatalistic/defeatist approach to reality. They are often very conscientious about their food, their (local and global) social and ecological environment, slavery, social injustice, and other issues. They actively participate in volunteer work too. But they consider protests pointless, they consider fighting for any kind of value they hold pointless (or 'inappropriate') and any other kind of activism pointless. Chomsky is one of the voices that makes some of 'us' believe that the battle is worth fighting.

13 points by ABS 13y ago

No comments? My impression is: "Ouch". Good (if brief) article. I've always thought that Chomsky was a bit of a kook. But he makes some very good points! The "ouch" is because he makes sense, which contradicts my previous impression of him. The headline seems a bit alarmist or dramatic. However, let's consider recent events. Given the sequester, government shutdown, "nuclear option" in the Senate, and many similar things, it appears to me that we're less of a "functioning democracy" than at anytime in at least the previous 50 or so years. (The article uses much different events to come to this conclusion).

a3n 13y ago
> I've always thought that Chomsky was a bit of a kook. If the past six months have taught us anything, it should be that sometimes the kooks are right.

vardump 13y ago

Well... I think what is really happening is that we are globally hitting the resource production rate limits. The only globally sane option is austerity, to balance the monetary reality with the physical reality. If you really have only ten cows, it does not matter whether your bookkeeping says you have 100 or 10000. You still only have ten of them. Unfortunately it is only winning move if all governments implemented it simultaneously, without any of them defecting. Artificially stimulating economy is massively beneficial for the defecting greedy governments (ie. most of them), at cost for all those whose budgets match physical reality. This makes austerity always the losing move for the few who do implement it (think Greece). The probable end result on the current path is massive unemployment and a nearly total economic meltdown or reset. Tragedy of the government commons.

mercer 13y ago

> He also disagreed that a platform in the mainstream media was necessary to influence the debate. > “If you take a look at the progressive changes that have taken place in the country, say, just in the last 50 years – the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, opposition to aggression, the women’s movement, the environmental movement and so on – they’re not led by any debate in the media,” Chomsky said. “No, they were led by popular organizations, by activists on the ground.” I strongly support what Chomsky is doing, not because I agree with him (I often don't), but because he spends most of his time convincing (young) people that grassroots movements and protests are not useless. Most of my peers in their twenties or thirties have strong values, but have a incredibly fatalistic/defeatist approach to reality. They are often very conscientious about their food, their (local and global) social and ecological environment, slavery, social injustice, and other issues. They actively participate in volunteer work too. But they consider protests pointless, they consider fighting for any kind of value they hold pointless (or 'inappropriate') and any other kind of activism pointless. Chomsky is one of the voices that makes some of 'us' believe that the battle is worth fighting.