Who Rules the World? Quotes

“Historical amnesia is a dangerous phenomenon not only because it undermines moral and intellectual integrity but also because it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“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.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“And the spectators must not be allowed to see too much. President Obama has set new standards in safeguarding this principle. He has, in fact, punished more whistle-blowers than all previous presidents combined, a real achievement for an administration that came to office promising transparency.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Public opinion is dismissed. That fact, once again, sends a strong message to Americans. It is their task to cure the dysfunctional political system, in which popular opinion is a marginal factor. The disparity between public opinion and policy, in this case, has significant implications for the fate of the world.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“We should not forget Adam Smith’s perspicuous observation that the “masters of mankind”—in his day, the merchants and manufacturers of England—never cease to pursue their “vile maxim”: “All for ourselves, and nothing for other people.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“intellectuals are typically privileged; privilege yields opportunity, and opportunity confers responsibilities. An individual then has choices.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Obama’s global drone assassination campaign, a remarkable innovation in global terrorism, exhibits the same patterns. By most accounts, it is generating terrorists more rapidly than it is murdering those suspected of someday intending to harm us—an impressive contribution by a constitutional lawyer on the eight hundredth anniversary of Magna Carta, which established the basis for the principle of presumption of innocence that is the foundation of civilized law.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“The Clinton doctrine was encapsulated in the slogan “multilateral when we can, unilateral when we must.” In congressional testimony, the phrase “when we must” was explained more fully: the United States is entitled to resort to the “unilateral use of military power” to ensure “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“The pattern of praise and punishment is a familiar one throughout history: those who line up in the service of the state are typically praised by the general intellectual community, and those who refuse to line up in service of the state are punished.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“In the 1950s, President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles explained quite clearly the dilemma that the United States faced. They complained that the Communists had an unfair advantage: they were able to "appeal directly to the masses" and "get control of mass movements, something we have no capacity to duplicate. The poor people are the ones they appeal to and they have always wanted to plunder the rich."
That causes problems. The United States somehow finds it difficult to appeal to the poor with its doctrine that the rich should plunder the poor.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“When the NSA’s surveillance program was exposed by Edward Snowden’s revelations, high officials claimed that it had prevented fifty-four terrorist acts. On inquiry, that was whittled down to a dozen. A high-level government panel then discovered that there was actually only one case: someone had sent $8,500 to Somalia. That was the total yield of the huge assault on the Constitution and, of course, on others throughout the world.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Small wonder that President Obama advises us to look forward, not backward—a convenient doctrine for those who hold the clubs. Those who are beaten by them tend to see the world differently, much to our annoyance.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“The more vulgar apologists for U.S. and Israeli crimes solemnly explain that, while Arabs purposely kill civilians, the U.S. and Israel, being democratic societies, do not intend to do so. Their”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Amnesty International, which was opening its yearlong campaign to protect human rights defenders in Colombia in response to the country’s horrifying record of attacks against human rights and labor activists and mostly the usual victims of state terror: the poor and defenseless.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“There are those who are trying hard to do something about these threats, and others who are acting to escalate them. If you, this future historian or extraterrestrial observer, looked at who is in each group, you would see something strange indeed: those trying to mitigate or overcome these threats are the least developed societies—the indigenous populations, or the remnants of them; tribal societies; and first nations in Canada. They’re not talking about nuclear war but environmental disaster, and they’re really trying to do something about it.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“In this case, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s orders were being carried out—“anything that flies on anything that moves,” an open call for genocide that is rare in the historical record.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Support for democracy is the province of ideologists and propagandists. In the real world, elite dislike of democracy is the norm. The evidence is overwhelming that democracy is supported only insofar as it contributes to social and economic objectives, a conclusion reluctantly conceded by the more serious scholarship.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Propaganda must seek to blame others like public sector workers with their fat salaries and their exorbitant pensions. All fantasy. In the model of Raganite imagery of black mothers being driven in their limos to pick up welfare checks, and other models which need not be mentioned. We all must tighten our belts. Almost all, that is. Teachers are a particularly good target, as part of the deliberate effort to destroy the public education system from Kindergarten through the universities by privatization. Again, a policy that is good for the wealthy but a disaster for the population, as well as the longterm health of the economy.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“بخصوص الأعداء، يبقى التباين بين فئتي المفكرين على حاله، ولكن مع عكس القيم. في الاتحاد السوفييتي القديم، كان ينظر إلى المفكرين أصحاب القيم والمبادئ من قبل الأمريكان كمنشقين جديرين بالاحترام، في حين أننا لا نكن الازدراء إلا لأعضاء ومسؤولي الحزب الشيوعي، والمفكرين التكنوقراط ذوي الاهتمامات السياسية. كذلك في إيران نجد بأننا نكن الاحترام للمنشقين الشجعان، والسخط والازدراء لأولئك الذين يدافعون عن المؤسسة الدينية. وهكذا دواليك في أي مكان آخر على العموم.”
― Noam Chomsky, من يحكم العالم؟

“For the past 14 years more than 2 Palestinian children have been killed every day by Israeli Forces”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Hamas leaders have made it repeatedly clear that they would accept a two state settlement in accord with the international consensus that has been blocked by United States and Israel for 40 years.
Ceasefires have been regularly observed by Hamas until Israel violate them with violence”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“* In 2012 fatah and Hamas forged unity agreement and accepted all of the demands of the quartet. Obama administration also approved this agreement threatened the long-term goal of dividing Gaza from the West Bank. Something had to be done, three Israeli boys were murdered in the West Bank the Netanyahu government had strong evidence that once they were dead but use the opportunity to launch a rampage in the West Bank. During the 18 day rampage Israeli soldiers arrested 419 Palestinians and killed six, Hamas finally reacted with its first rocket strikes in 19 months. This provided the pretext for operation protective edge on July 8 by the end of July 15 hundred Palestinians had been killed 70% of them were civilians including hundreds of women and children. Three civilians in Israel were killed. Large areas of Gaza were turned into rubble. Gauzes main power plant was attacked, which is a war crime rescue teams and ambulances were repeatedly attacked for hospitals were attacked another war crime. Are you in school was attacked harbouring 3300 refugees who had fled the ruins of their neighbourhoods on the orders of the Israeli army”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Todo esto, y mucho más, puede ocurrir mientras prevalezca la doctrina Muasher. Mientras la población general permanezca pasiva, apática y desviada hacia el consumismo o el odio a los vulnerables, los poderosos pueden hacer lo que les plazca; y los que sobrevivan podrán contemplar el resultado.”
― Noam Chomsky, ¿Quién domina el mundo?

“CONTROLAR EL DESEO DE DEMOCRACIA Todo eso ocurrió hace ciento cincuenta años; en Inglaterra, antes. Se han dedicado esfuerzos enormes a inculcar el Nuevo Espíritu de la Época y hay industrias fundamentales consagradas a la labor: relaciones públicas, publicidad y márketing en general, todo lo cual suma una parte enorme del producto interior bruto. Esas industrias se aplican en lo que el gran economista político Thorstein Veblen llamó «fabricación de deseos».14 En palabras de los propios empresarios, la labor consiste en dirigir a la gente hacia «cosas superficiales» de la vida, como el «consumo en moda». De esa forma la gente puede atomizarse, se pueden separar unos de otros, ya que solo se busca el beneficio personal, y se aleja a las personas del peligroso esfuerzo de pensar por sí mismas y enfrentarse a la autoridad. Edward Bernays, uno de los fundadores de la industria moderna de las relaciones públicas, denominó «ingeniería del consentimiento» al proceso de modelar opiniones, actitudes y percepciones. Bernays era un respetado progresista, al estilo de Wilson, Roosevelt y Kennedy, igual que su coetáneo, el periodista Walter Lippmann, el intelectual público más destacado de Estados Unidos en el siglo XX y alabó «la ingeniería del consentimiento» como «un nuevo arte» en la práctica de la democracia. Ambos reconocieron que la ciudadanía debe ser «puesta en su lugar», marginada y controlada; por su propio interés, por supuesto. La gente era demasiado «estúpida e ignorante» para que se le permita gobernar sus propios asuntos. Esa tarea tenía que dejarse a una «minoría inteligente», a la que hay que proteger «de las trampas y el rugido [del] rebaño desorientado» los «independientes ignorantes y entrometidos»; la «multitud traviesa», como la llaman sus predecesores del siglo XVII. El papel de la población general en una sociedad democrática que funcionara como es debido consistía en ser «espectadores» no «participantes en la acción».15 Y a los espectadores no se les debe permitir ver demasiado. El presidente Obama ha impuesto nuevos criterios para salvaguardar este principio. De hecho, Obama ha castigado a más gente que tira de la manta que todos los presidentes anteriores juntos, todo un éxito para un gobierno que llegó al poder prometiendo transparencia. Entre los muchos temas que no son asunto del rebaño desorientado están las relaciones exteriores. Cualquiera que haya estudiado documentos secretos desclasificados habrá descubierto que, en gran medida, su clasificación se concibió para proteger a las autoridades del escrutinio público. A escala nacional, la plebe no tenía que oír el consejo de los tribunales a grandes empresas: que deberían consagrar algunos esfuerzos muy visibles a buenas obras, de manera que una «opinión pública excitada» no descubriera los enormes beneficios que el Estado niñera les proporcionaba.16”
― Noam Chomsky, ¿Quién domina el mundo?

“counterinsurgency”—a standard term for terrorism that we direct.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“it is more gratifying to bask in praise for courageously protesting the abuses of official enemies: a fine activity, but not the priority of a value-oriented intellectual who takes the responsibilities of that stance seriously.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“كان إيزنهاور قلقًا حول ما سمّاه «حملة كره» ضدنا في العالم العربي، ليست بين الحكومات وإنما عند الشعوب. وكان هناك تحليل بالوقت نفسه لإدارة مجلس الأمن القومي، أعلى هيئة تخطيطية، التي قالت: إن هناك حملة من الكره سببها وجود إدراك ملموس بأن الولايات المتحدة تدعم الديكتاتوريات، وتقف عائقًا أمام الديمقراطية والتنمية. لكن النقطة الأساسية التي تتعلق بهذه الثورة المميزة والمذهلة، النقطة الأساسية التي عبّر عنها مسؤول أردني كبير يرأس بحوث الشرق الأوسط لوقف كارنيجي الذي قال: إن المبدأ: مادام الناس هادئين فإن كل شيء رائع، وإن أصبح التوقف تامًا يجب القيام بشيء ما لإعادة فرض السيطرة. ذلك هو المبدأ الأساسي للحكم.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“Nuclear war is the black swan we can never see, except in that brief moment when it is killing us. We delay eliminating the risk at our own peril. Now is the time to address the threat, because now we are still alive.”14”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“In a 1980 study Latin Americanist Larz Shultz found that US aid has "tended to flow disproportionately to Latin American governments which torture their citizens. To the hemispheres relatively egregious violators of fundamental human rights." That trend included military aid was independent of need and ran through the Carter years. Broader studies by Edward Herman found the same correlation and also suggested an explanation. Not surprisingly US aid tends to correlate with a favorable climate for business operations, commonly improved by the murder of labor and peasant organizer and human rights activists and other such actions. Yielding a secondary correlation between aid and egregious violations of human rights.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?

“As Harvard professor Elaine Scarry reminds us, "The prohibition on assassination in international law traces back to a forceful denunciation of the practice by Abraham Lincoln, who condemned the call for assassination as 'international outlawry' in 1863, an 'outrage' which 'civilized nations view with horror' and that merits the 'sternest retaliation'. We've come a long way since then.”
― Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World?