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Originally Posted by silv
Thanks!
In the first interview a few secs after 21:23 he says that workers must be kept in fear for their job so they don't act threatening the ruling class.
I've read something like that quite a few times but I always doubted it and put it aside as a conspiracy theory by disenfranchised hysterical people.
But it's true. This link jumps directly to 21:23 where Chomsky is leading up to quoting an Alan Greenspan who really did explain that exact measure as a tool to keep the ruling system running. In 1978 in a US senate hearing.
I was dumbstruck seeing that!
[my addition: And on a global scale, when people all over are in competition with each other for their very bread... how wonderfully quiet an environment that provides for the "masters of society" - strike that, "masters of mankind". ]
The other revelation, although not supported by such a quote, was rather at the beginning when Noam says of Aristotle that he saw a flaw in democracy and offered a solution. The flaw was poor people acting out and threatening the governing system. And Aristotle's remedy was, according to Noam, the welfare state. Keep the poor fed and they won't destabilize order.
Then, Noam points out that today's remedy to the same flaw is: reducing democracy.
I currently see both claims in practice here in Germany and in the EU. The one to keep workers insecure to keep them quiet - and the one to reduce democracy instead of upping the welfare.
Just this week, the EU has introduced a percentage cap for the election after the one in 2019. From then on, a party or independent EU candidate must get 5% of the voters. Failing that he is out - and his voters have no say at all in EU parliament. |
Annette - the same is happening in Australia. I've read a few of Noam's books in the past, but hadn't really read/heard much about his thoughts on society in general etc and was gobsmacked that pretty much every idea he mentioned in this documentary I've been saying for 15+ years to friends, family members and work colleagues, all of whom are uninterested sadly. I'm not as eloquent as Noam, perhaps that is the reason why!
Most of my concentrations with regards to Noam's written works were in regards to the illegal Israeli occupation of sovereign Palestinian territories and the atrocities that Israel has committed in the interim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LewisM
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Thanks Lewis - I'll have to check this out!!!!