Who Rules the World? (American Empire Project)

by Noam Chomsky

In the United States, prominent researchers have produced compelling evidence that “economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.”

As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, and diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.

Under the “free-trade agreements,” the mining company Pacific Rim can, for example, sue El Salvador for seeking to protect its environment; individuals cannot do the same. General Motors can claim national rights in Mexico. There is no need to dwell on what would happen if a Mexican person demanded national rights in the United States.

One of the great achievements of the American doctrinal system has been to divert anger from the corporate sector to the government that implements the programs that the private sector designs.