More Quotes by Noam Chomsky
The world is a very puzzling place. If you're not willing to be puzzled, you just become a replica of someone else's mind.
He who controls the media controls the minds of the public.
Do you train for passing tests or do you train for creative inquiry?
The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.
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.
Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think.
The public is not to see where power lies, how it shapes policy, and for what ends. Rather, people are to hate and fear one another.
Nobody is going to pour truth into your brain. It's something you have to find out for yourself.
The point of public relations slogans like "Support Our Troops" is that they don't mean anything ... that's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody is going to be against and I suppose everybody will be for, because nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. But its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something, do you support our policy? And that's the one you're not allowed to talk about.
Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours.
