Noam Chomsky on the "Crisis of Democracy" + VIDEO

Here is an excerpt from Matt Taibbi's interview with (((Noam Chomsky))), "Appendix B" to Hate Inc., which I reviewed last the weekend.

The Crisis of Democracy, which came out in 1975 [was] the first publication of the Trilateral Commission, which is a group of liberal internationalists from Europe, United States, and Japan, three main centers of capitalist democracy.

...The "Crisis of Democracy" is that in the 1960s, all kinds of sectors of the population that are supposed to be passive and apathetic begin to try to enter the political arena to press for their own interest and concerns, and that imposes too much of a burden on the state, which becomes ungovernable. So, what we need is "more moderation in democracy." That's their phrase. People should go back into their corners and leave it to us.

In fact, the American rapporteur Samuel Huntington looked back kind of nostalgically to the Truman years. He says Truman was able to govern the country politically with the aid of just a few Wall Street bankers.

Then we had democracy. But he goes after the media. he says the media have bcome too adversarial, too independent. We may even have to institute government controls to try to contain them, because of what they're doing.

That's the liberal position. The Trilateral Commission also went after what they called the de-legitimation of the universities. They said that the institutions -- and this is their phrase -- these institutions responsible for the "indoctrination of the young" -- are being de-legitimized.

We've got to have more indoctrination. Remember, that's the liberal end of the spectrum. Over to the right wing, you get much harsher things... but that's the intellectual background. We've got to stop "too much democracy," "too much freedom."

The 1960s were always called the "Time of Troubles". That was a time when all this started.

The emphasis is mine. I've been saying as much since the hippy-dippy `60s, which I remember well. Just because Prof. Chomsky is a leftie peacenik doesn't make him wrong. I'm putting Manufacturing Consent, recommended by Matt Taibbi, on my reading list. Oh... wait...



You can stop listening at 8:35 when the speaker starts talking about the Iowa primary (although it's a good example of the media manipulation under consideration.) What precedes that part pretty well sums up what both Noam Chomsky and Matt Taibbi are saying. It all has to do with money. Surprised?