Skip to content

Institutions Quotes by Noam Chomsky

40 Institutions quotes by Noam Chomsky

All Institutions quotes Noam Chomsky’s page

Truth is a cooperative search that never ends, yet corporations often turn institutions into totalitarian machines. Chomsky points out that education filters out independent thinkers, and that online results can be skewed by advertising. He urges us to work inside these systems to change them.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

U.S. has no feudal background, so institutions that remained in place in Europe did not remain in place here.

Image

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

Image

If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the…

Image

You can live within the institutions and work hard to change them.

Image

There are a lot of things that can be done within the framework of existing institutions which would be very valuable for…

Image

Modifying the core institutions of the society is no small challenge.

Image

Why should workers agree to be slaves in a basically authoritarian structure? They should have control over it themselves. Why shouldn't communities…

Image

States are violent institutions. The government of any country, including ours, represents some sort of domestic power structure, and it's usually violent.…

Image

Free institutions certainly exist, but a tradition of passivity and conformism restricts their use - a cynic might say that this is…

Image

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

Image

In Latin America, specialists and polling organisations have, for some time, observed that the extension of formal democracy was accompanied by an…

Image

The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly…

Image

Obama's primary constituency was financial institutions. They were the core of the funding for his campaign. They expect to be paid back.…

Image

I would, however, question the implication that there is some novelty in this beyond modalities [of Mikhail Bakunin], which naturally change as…

Image

Extensive violations of human rights (torture, forced reduction of living standards for much of the population, police-sponsored death squads, destruction of representative…

Image

I mean, what's the elections? You know, two guys, same background, wealth, political influence, went to the same elite university, joined the…

Image

There was a time traditionally - say, GM in the 1950s - it was trying to develop a consumer base that would…

Image

I think individuals have a right to privacy, but that ought to include the right to prevent private institutions from monitoring what…

Image

The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and…

Image

The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and…

Image

Major efforts have to be undertaken to bring the general public to understand the real reasons for their plight, and the possibilities…

Image

It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation?…

Image

You don't have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system -…

Image

Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are, in principle, under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an…

Image

A corporation is a state created institution, state supported institution, its concentration of private power, there is no reason why it should…

Image

Under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle…

Image

The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce…

Image

Corporations are totalitarian institutions. Board of directors at the top of managers give orders, everyone follows orders… At the very bottom of…

Image

Barack Obama is an opportunist, mostly supported by the financial institutions. He had no positions on anything. He's very intelligent. If you…

Image

The task for a modern industrial society is to achieve what is now technically realizable, namely, a society which is really based…

Image

There could be an independent labor-based party, which might over time become an important force the way the Labor Party did in…

Image

Policies are designed to undermine working class organization and the reason is not only the unions fight for workers' rights, but they…

Image

A fundamental element of human nature is the need for creative work, for creative inquiry, for free creation without the arbitrary limiting…

Image

There is no reason to accept the doctrines crafted to sustain power and privilege, or to believe that we are constrained by…

Image

So the first things that you see when you look up something on Google could be dependent on the amount of advertising…

Image

Anarchism, in my view, is an expression of the idea that the burden of proof is always on those who argue that…

Image

In any institution-factory, university, health center, or whatever-there are a variety of interests that ought to be represented in decision-making: the work…

Image

It is one thing for the institution to offer space for serious engagement, in thought and action, and to encourage free and…

Image

Latin America was the most obedient follower of the neoliberal regime that was instituted by the United States, its allies and the…

Image

There's kind of a hidden point which isn't being brought out, and that is that it is inconceivable that the U.S. would…

Image

Other authors on Institutions

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…