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Democracy Quotes by Noam Chomsky

115 Democracy quotes by Noam Chomsky

All Democracy quotes Noam Chomsky’s page

Chomsky points out that democracy requires knowing what the government does. He argues that neoliberal ideas and corporate power attack democratic principles, and that concentration of executive power is a threat. The quotes also say democracy often harms elite interests and that elections can be run by the same industries that sell toothpaste.

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If you believe in democracy, why shouldn't you know what the government is doing?

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The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

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The first democratic revolution was England in the 1640s.

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If voting could actually change anything, it would be illegal.

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You can’t have meaningful political democracy without functioning economic democracy.

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Democracy is always harmful to elite interests. Almost by definition.

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The best defense against democracy is to distract people.

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A democracy barely functions under the neoliberal system.

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Plainly elites in America don't want democracy. And why should they? Democracy is always harmful to elite interests. Almost by definition.

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Concentration of executive power, unless it's very temporary and for specific circumstances, let's say fighting world war two, it's an assault on…

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The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies.

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The more there is a need to talk about the ideals of democracy, the less democratic the system usually is.

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Democracy, in any rational form, also imposes conditions on majority rule. That's what the Bill of Rights is about, for example.

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Politicians don't want democracy here in America, why would they want it in the Middle East?

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Julian Assange shouldn't be the subject of a grand jury hearing, he should be given a medal. He's contributing to democracy.

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The 'corporatization of America' during the past century [has been] an attack on democracy.

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Look, the United States doesn't have political parties. In other countries, take say Europe, you can be an active member of the…

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Clinton, Kennedy, they all carried out mass murder, but they didn't think that that was what they were doing - nor does…

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You can't get votes that way. So [the Republicans] have been compelled to mobilize a base of voters and gone to elements…

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Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under…

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One of the most interesting reactions to come out of 1968 was in the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, which believed…

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In the US, first of all, the electoral system has been almost totally shredded. For a long time it's been pretty much…

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[For business after WWII ] democracy means getting people to regard government as an alien force that's robbing them and oppressing them,…

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There's a lot of fuss on the Left about election irregularities, like, you know, the voting machines were tampered with, they didn't…

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The Bolshevik revolution was a counter-revolution. Its first moves were to destroy and eliminate every socialist tendency that had developed in the…

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I think a decent society should protect rights to private property within limits, but not concentrations of private power that infringe on…

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“Elections are run by the public relations industry. Its primary task is commercial advertising, which is designed to undermine markets by creating…

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“The very concept of social planning, of rational planning for human concerns—that's regarded as virtually subversive. And that's the only thing that…

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In the United States, the day when you pay your taxes is a day of mourning because this alien force - the…

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Take the US. Women were not even able to vote until 90 ago, at about the same time they gained the right…

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In the 1960s, various parts of the population became energized and began to enter the public arena to call for the rights…

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Looking at polls of Arab public opinion, you look at popular figures, the most popular figure is the prime minister of Turkey,…

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“So take something that's been happening in recent years: devolution―that is, removing authority from the federal government down to the state governments.…

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“Aristotle’s Politics, Book III, Chapter 8 The real difference between democracy and oligarchy is between poverty and wealth. Wherever the rulers, whether…

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“Well, our economic system "works," it just works in the interests of the masters, and I'd like to see one that works…

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“Well, it's true that the anarchist vision in just about all its varieties has looked forward to dismantling state power―and personally I…

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“The World Bank has its own term for the phenomenon: they call it "technocratic insulation." So if you read World Bank studies,…

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“Well, it depends which planned economies you mean. There are lots of planned economies―the United States is a planned economy, for example.…

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“Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual…

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“In his book Politics, which is the foundation of the study of political systems, and very interesting, Aristotle talked mainly about Athens.…

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More by Noam Chomsky

The costs of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now estimated to run as high as $4.4 trillion - a major victory…

If you believe in democracy, why shouldn't you know what the government is doing?

It’s a shameful moment for U.S. media when it insists on being subservient to the grotesque propaganda agencies of a violent, aggressive state.

There are questions as to whether it should even exist. Who should corporations be responsive to, the management of a corporation? Theoretically they are…

Governments regard their own citizens as their main enemy, and they have to be - protect themselves. That's why you have state secret laws.…

I don't join the New Atheists. So, for example, I wouldn't have the arrogance to lecture some mother who hopes to see her dying…

The first thing you ought to do is verify what I present. Just because I say it doesn't make it true. So check it…

I wrote an article about the marine landing [in Haiti] right away, but barely mentioned the oil, because my article would come out two…

American society is now remarkably atomized. Political organizations have collapsed. In fact, it seems like even bowling leagues are collapsing. The left has a…

Discovery is the ability to be puzzled by simple things. Noam Chomsky

There's an interesting book about that called The Third Reich and the Ivory Tower, written by Stephen H. Norwood. It has a long discussion…

This is class war on an international scale, and power is in the hands of those who control the international economic system.

There are big, extremely irrational parts of the society, and they have now been mobilized politically by the Republican establishment, hoping that these people…

There's plenty to criticize about the mass media, but they are the source of regular information about a wide range of topics. You can't…

The 50,000 Korean mercenaries we had in Vietnam were professional killers and just massacred people outright. And the American army did plenty of that…