Re: Quotes from Noam Chomsky


elmir2m@xxxxxxx wrote:

Fella wrote:

Fella emphasises:> !!!THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT!!!
And quotes (? N. Chomsky?)> "The smart way to keep people passive and
obedient is to strictly limit
the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within
that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views.
That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while
all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by
the limits put on the range of the debate." My note: "Controlled
freedom" as it were...

Musso, Hitler, Stalin and a host of their imitators felt they had an
even smarter way: they put "the more critical and dissident" people
like Mr. Fella and Mr. Chomsky behind barbed wire or in Siberian tundra
to "work" when not wanting to waste a bullet into the back of the
skull.
They didn't bother with "controlled freedom". They acted.
Anyone close to the real events and real history experiences feelings
of revulsion reading the spoilt kids of a free society whining about
their miseries.

Is it bad elsewhere? Certainly.

Do we have it pretty good? Definitiely.

If, however, people are not allowed to freely criticize a free nation,
either by repression, or in this case, by a sort of peer pressure, then
what is the diffrence whether or not you can voice dissent?

It sounds like you, or someone that you knew, had a rough time. I'm
sorry if that is the case. In reality, the difference between a society
like the one you describe and ours is not really all that much. I think
that freedom is something that requires constant vigilance. There will
always be somebody that would like to take away your freedoms to
enhance their power. Remember, for example, that the Nazis were
originally a lawfully elected political party in a functioning
democratic republic.

.

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