

Noam Chomsky: We’re no longer a functioning democracy, we’re really a plutocracy - ABS
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/27/noam-chomsky-were-no-longer-a-functioning-democracy-were-really-a-plutocracy/

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mercer
> He also disagreed that a platform in the mainstream media was necessary to
> influence the debate.

> “If you take a look at the progressive changes that have taken place in the
> country, say, just in the last 50 years – the civil rights movement, the
> antiwar movement, opposition to aggression, the women’s movement, the
> environmental movement and so on – they’re not led by any debate in the
> media,” Chomsky said. “No, they were led by popular organizations, by
> activists on the ground.”

I strongly support what Chomsky is doing, not because I agree with him (I
often don't), but because he spends most of his time convincing (young) people
that grassroots movements and protests are not useless. Most of my peers in
their twenties or thirties have strong values, but have a incredibly
fatalistic/defeatist approach to reality. They are often very conscientious
about their food, their (local and global) social and ecological environment,
slavery, social injustice, and other issues. They actively participate in
volunteer work too. But they consider protests pointless, they consider
fighting for any kind of value they hold pointless (or 'inappropriate') and
any other kind of activism pointless.

Chomsky is one of the voices that makes some of 'us' believe that the battle
is worth fighting.

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vardump
Well... I think what is really happening is that we are globally hitting the
resource production rate limits.

The only globally sane option is austerity, to balance the monetary reality
with the physical reality. If you really have only ten cows, it does not
matter whether your bookkeeping says you have 100 or 10000. You still only
have ten of them. Unfortunately it is _only_ winning move if all governments
implemented it simultaneously, without any of them defecting.

Artificially stimulating economy is massively beneficial for the defecting
greedy governments (ie. most of them), at cost for all those whose budgets
match physical reality. This makes austerity always the losing move for the
few who do implement it (think Greece).

The probable end result on the current path is massive unemployment and a
nearly total economic meltdown or reset.

Tragedy of the government commons.

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PhantomGremlin
No comments? My impression is: "Ouch".

Good (if brief) article. I've always thought that Chomsky was a bit of a kook.
But he makes some very good points! The "ouch" is because he makes sense,
which contradicts my previous impression of him.

The headline seems a bit alarmist or dramatic. However, let's consider recent
events. Given the sequester, government shutdown, "nuclear option" in the
Senate, and many similar things, it appears to me that we're less of a
"functioning democracy" than at anytime in at least the previous 50 or so
years. (The article uses much different events to come to this conclusion).

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a3n
> I've always thought that Chomsky was a bit of a kook.

If the past six months have taught us anything, it should be that sometimes
the kooks are right.

