Noam Chomsky- Democracy & the Public University (HQ link in description)

good afternoon everyone and welcome to a conversation with noam chomsky we apologize for the delay and some of you will know there were issues with our registration system we wanted to make sure that we got everybody in that we could so thank you for bearing with us on that one mr. Chomsky is a native Philadelphian he studied University of Pennsylvania receiving his doctorate 1955 but will not say near accepted the teaching position at the massachusetts institute of technology has been at MIT ever since nineteen sixty-six he was appointed the ferrari hard professor of modern languages linguistics 1976 to professor and now he is professor emeritus of linguistics almost still active as a teacher and scholar he's a linguist philosopher a cognitive scientist and also this is what brings us here in this particular part of the day a political activist authored more than 150 books are renewably the best known living academic and I pulled the most cited with all living authors it's of course his role as political activist a self-declared libertarian socialist at least to this particular event and he comes by that title very honestly in 1967 with his essay entitled responsibility to collections published as the New York Review of Books emerged as a leading academic critic of American domestic and foreign policy and most specifically the war to be a nap I was saying to him earlier that I first heard his name in this very room in 1968 as an undergraduate student when we were we were having conversations at curls in about war in Vietnam this was followed in 1969 the book of essays American power and the new mandarins many or follow professor Chomsky has been I was spoken in his criticism of many aspects of modern society to me institutions media perhaps especially corporate capitalism military and not only in his tree so not one to issue controversy he has called Canada's Human Rights Commission quote outrageous unquote and the legislation which created it hypocrisy quote unquote in the process earning accolades from figures holiday that some of you may know as relevant can interview with CBC he gold our former prime minister luster Pearson or by moscone him a war criminal and basically he's been critical of a lack of adequate security on the canada-us border complaining the American government was much too laughs when it came to its northern border so all of us are provocative always interesting I give you don't come ski and Rebecca we're all honored here start by really big question which is what is it makes a public university remember there's a technical definition the publican spirits depends on who was in charge of the administration the fine accents and so on either the government or the private institution the government is public university it is a private institutions a private university actually that's just technical and the boundaries are extremely flexible as I say take my own University where my team technically a private university I got there making 55 through the early seventies factors probably probably 90 years in the academic programs the Pentagon not just from pentagon funny the political science department was openly funded by the CIA that's 100 techniques but since then the funding has shifted but for interesting reasons having to 90 the economy but you know it like I say technically trident but from another point of view is from the administration is private or trustees are not specifically responsible responsible to state authorities now the other entity go down the street to the University of Massachusetts that's entirely but also gets harder right here has a huge biggest private world private diversity but again we're not I think most of us are not imagining a time of day so I wonder if you could talk more about that relationship between democracy and public universities sort of not just in the technical sense of well actually the details are revealing so while my team was completely tentacle funded like in 1968 I was in a lab was hundred percent by the Mithraeum services but that lab was also in the center of any more resistance in the country I mean resistance not protest so several of us moving they were on the verge of blowing Joseph that was all under Pentagon funding and there was interference I mean I for years 25 years was teaching undergraduate courses and issues change the community absolutely no man fun because the university didn't shut down and get a lot of students a lot of students who came out in fact were involved in the activism the 60s about were doing so it was funded it was probably just completely free interestingly as it's at work corporate further through the latest period it introduced more secrecy and no seniors in campus there was no more work I was actually on a understanding pressure and whether he's into the data is that in 1969 under law student pressure was during the Brits and vacuum ism it was protest about military labs which were administered violating was reaching kind of crisis was nobody wanted so everybody did we can do when there's a crisis was that faculty committee which is defined as internet chalices or it turned out that's publishing we'll look at a palace mission but a man not exactly right this is but roughly was like this about half the Institute budget was administering the military labs the little turd labs actually did classified secret military work that was kind of a joke to like my wife work that was a military left it was partly open everybody would have people went up and back to Senator technically in the secret that the kidney academic Simon's open again this one I tryna porous distinction so about half his military labs the other half was the academic budget of the academic budget i think in 69 maybe ninety percent was pending unfunded no more work exceptional science department the political science department was involved in pacification programs in Vietnam naturally under the rubric of a Peace Research Institute but the dance secrets in an American actress was to have but outside political science department there was a world acceptance isn't anything that a boy does cadets on military occupation through the 1970s and after the present a pedagogue there is a new more recent study some kind of estimating details later roughly what happened is that Penn funding decline funding from the National Institute of Health and the other government health related Institute's increased as it were corporate funding the shift from the Pentagon to the National Student Health and so on that has to do with something that's not too well understood except by the business world they understand but I don't think economist understand more works they were turning the high-tech security they were just helping that the Pentagon was a technique for eluding taxpayers into providing funds for the injured the benefit of private corporations so a lot of mordor was going on for example developing computers the internet YT revolution lasers just about hold high-tech economy we don't live in a capitalist society nothing remotely like there's the innovation the initiative the funding and so on comes in many ways for the state sector and for business that's great you know they way around they brother gets bright so great at a taxpayer pays for it on the assumption you know we're keeping we're saving yourself from the Russian that's basically the system well 60s theme running engine economy was electronic space and the Pentagon's a cover for that it's shifted now the cutting edge in economies were biology based so you should think of other government institutes like NIH officials from bill but that largely has to do with where the autonomous would like in the nineteen fifties and sixties around in my tea and some of the other researches university systems all over the country the Lighting's extreme with all over Stanford North Carolina around the research university to get small startups those are faculty members who are using the government-funded research and development to set up small businesses and back in there were electronics based and if they were successful than me bought out by Raytheon I tech the high tech companies now if you around the campus the startup sir and genetic engineering technology that pharmaceuticals and the buildings around arnis these guys who want to milk the research and development that's going on under W auspices of the University and that's the basis for a lot of the eternal the action is going to be back but it really took off after the Second World War dramatically it was plenty before but nothing like this partly because I'm just changes in the nature of science and technology like in the 1950s say when i got there i thi--like exactly an engineering school like you went there when the build things or build a bridge or make electric circuit or whatever it may be and now if you want to do that stuff can go to wentworth institute some other place mit society person you study basic science and basic math and you take pretty much the same courses whether you're in aeronautical engineering or Electrical Engineering their wounds that adapted but not much that the reason is the size has just changed this was a period in which really for the first time the advances of science could significantly affect that technological development and the technology changed fast because under sofa student learns technology hey they won't be able to get a job 20 years from now technology will be different if they learn fundamental science they can certainly change the same strim of the biological base areas from zoo and at the same time for great corner from the kingdom and has to do with other things changes in the economy structure can talk about it before but efforts build a kind of business model for everything brother and that includes corporate funding while the corporate funding has an effect for one thing it attendants to a dr research towards short term applied work I mean when the Pentagon of the NIH is funding something they're thinking about the long-term health because when work for someone is funding something they want to live in themselves they went in tomorrow so you end up getting more short term applied research and he once again secrecy the first it was no secrecy korean ability you can walk in 24 hours a day the it just were perfect eyes the corporation can't force secrecy but they could make it clear you're not gonna get country renew something is out but have been real skins the facts are made it electric pages of Wall Street Journal the scandals were secretly in the university so their credit cheapening of course a defective which you'd expect when the business models impose that shows up at lots of waves but to get back to your question you just can't draw mechanical conclusions from a source of a lot of people friends of the left her actions of the forces from the FBI so we were to starting the hypothesis that that universities are in some way or gamma function of engines of democracy how does the idea of public mass figure in there given what you just private university which means you have to pay tuition you did the tuition isn't Harvard minutes tuition a public university supposed to be free that used to be the case in fact even the private and the public universities have changed radically since the 1970s I hear from about the United States so by now the get a personal example a couple of months ago I happen to be giving folks in mexico mexico city at the national university the university had said come on a desk students a pretty high quality facilities students for students but faculty the low salaries by our sins are specially when a fish the university's perfectly respectable university free ten years ago the government tried to slightly raised tuition it was a national student strike national that they go back to us in fact one of the main administration buildings on campus I've discovered is still occupied by students in the city mexico city there is a public university which is already free but open admissions since I've never they have compensatory courses because a lot of the students don't have the right back room I was there to people talk to students faculty pretty impressive happy go from there Mexico's of course of poor country I went from there to California which may be the richest place in the world kalkaji they are consciously destroying the best public education system in the world I mean the california public education system was pretty amazing the universities were great universities this lower tiers state colleges lower college other universities well quite high level they used to be free tuitions of blue sky high in fact it's very likely been talking about it now that the Berkeley and UCLA two stars and system proudly privatized for the role of private universities now if you look at P & tuitions and the rest of the system is lowered and quality occasionally were ended less funding and so on you know that's one of the richest places in the world in fact next year this year I gets from the first time more than I think less than half of the cost with the university is provided by publix early those leads tuition that's true in many states in the United States no well these are all steps towards a privatizing society and creating a kind of a two-tiered society which is geared for the wealthy the privileged and the rest of you can you survive so now she can those are big processes not just new persons economically driven you can see that by the very Mexico to the United States Mexico's workman very richest country in history in fact couple of economies have looked into the actual economics of it public education in the United States totally free Reza Bell less than 2% of the first domestic product approximately I think figure was about four months worth of administrative waste in the dysfunctional health care system is a privatized health care system with a total disaster naturally twice the per capita costs of anywhere else running for outcomes lot of the district costs that i think the figure was about four months of mission wasters own like that from the bone education that fraction of the incomes of these are social positions in the United States and what's public universities must be like Mexico it should be free that should be open alysha made option for open admissions and resources should do it to make sure it work that the kinds of rising tuition fees increasing reliance on student fees for operating budgets and now all these things do you think that these are just sort of mean to what extent of a part of its or general divestment from public sphere public institutions and that part you are headed toward the university but this has a really good study do it if you get back to get any settings a lot of changes you gonna be the seventies but one crucial thing change with regard to the universities and the 60s the late sixties electoral successful late 60s were period a lot of activism and terrified the business room Tennyson terrified liberal intellectuals across the spectrum they were in terrified the stems are a control of this too much democracy which you can read two pages of opposite ends of the spectrum loose powell who is a corporate lawyer soon became the Justice it was written to the Chamber of Commerce to their education committee timber covers who made in business lobby and that's the picture of the right in the spectrum in competitive memorandum was said to me that it was totally paranoid but he reflected the paranoia of the business world the business world is basically totalitarian they're used to running everything that if anything has a controlled world's falling apart that's a typical aspect movement of military intent fellas but it shows up in foreign policy in the lone voice so his picture was that it was very standard that the whole university system and effect media has been taken over by raging Marxist so real if you know anything about the facts you'd laugh if you don't understand that this is a natural natural perception that that out there in metallic you can't allow anything get out of control and it's true things were partially out of control it also Herbert where kuzu was teaching some students at Harvard Nader was popular so we got to do something to the wood about restore the balance so do something to make sure that in the universities in television in the media you know there's at least some small voice that says in the United States is not nazi germany and maybe something in American history is of just extermination like this you really haven't read it get the citizen it's directed the business world he says look good we are the trusting that business world's trustees of the universities we're the ones who make the decisions that we provide the tax forms that we own the media we ought to mobilize instead of letting disturbin mark lutheran Ralph Nader steal the world away from us we went to mobilize and use our power to as he says restore the balance that he's very strong and not attacking academic freedom is the massive sacred doctrine to maintain it and we are supporting academic freedom by restoring balance move from ninety percent control to ninety-eight percent control the balance will be restored that's the Reagan and perhaps follow you know those suggestions are acknowledged by the business world in all kind of ways and I think one of them is rated to issues I can't prove but it's at that time that raising of tuitions begins and that's a disciplinary technique if the kids in the 1960s it could assume sure you remember this you know I can take off for two years and become a political activist and work for women's rights civil rights or something and then I'll come back and pick up my career well thats dangers it frees people to think that's a terrible idea so what you want to do is travel so that maybe some young guy thinks he wants to be a public interest lawyer are you made sure that he comes out of law school with a hundred thousand dollars in debt he's going to go says no choice what's he's in there internalize the culture sub T he'll be state and the same so is it could have been it's a kind of a disciplinary technique will add a lot of other things too to the business models are the universities also well let's go to the other end of the spectrum which is in Weymouth more interesting there's a book you've read about it is called the crisis of democracy it's a very important book instead making said before it's the first publication of the Trilateral Commission trilateral commission is liberal international editions in the three traffic major state capitalist societies North America Western Europe and to get the tenor of it that's what the Carter Administration was drawn from entire track that's what they are to the three major areas well what's the question democracy you really have to breathe see crisis of democracy this is too much work usually what they said is segments of the population that are usually passive and apathetic and obedient are entering the public arena and pressing their demands you know like men elderly and the workers farmers population special interests when Rufus that's too much pressure on the state they get few little special interests as what group it isn't mentioned the corporate sector and that's correct because they're the national interest so they have to be controlling but there's pressure from the special interests and you have to somehow paint them back and establish what they called more moderation of the body keep them down with regard to the school's quite interesting they said that is it their words they said need institutions responsible for the indoctrination of Lyon are not doing their job ok schools universities churches that are not indoctrinating neone properly this is a properly various suggestions to control the media state-controlled media was there to matters area free this liberal school together inspected well the two ends inspector are almost identical than that tells you something that out of this comes a lot of impacted I don't have any was studied it that I can't prove it but my strong suspicion is that the attacks on public universities including things like tuition quite possibly come out of this out of this whole mentality it was related to things happening in the economy that's the period when post where he got to be the sort of dismantle the productive economy was dismantled the move towards financialization of the economy but this was one of them try to reimpose discipline so we don't have problems from these students who were indoctrinated properly conception is quite real it says drink pocket the study to change the way studies I think it lock it would did but I think that all these confluence of all of these things and it's lend in the period of this increasing repression which you're living in schools of everywhere else remember a since all of us in economy of the United States's almost insane can directly that the smallest set in motion the kind of a vicious cycle in which there was an increasing concentration of wealth but everyone knows that the United States highly illegal quality it's in the top fraction of one percent of the population the second of the population so small so I picked up in census afternoon kind of sophisticated analysis in wealthy pick them up but turns out the cup one-tenth of one percent of the population has just gotten spectacularly wealthy that's CEOs hedge fund managers you that people are playing things like that enormous wealth why maybe they don't like to believe it in political science courses but political says no an open though sure that wealth entails control of the political system so we ask concentration of economic power increases political power is concentrated the same way and it is used to increase the concentration well so over these years if you look at fiscal policy corporate government city regulation these are all government legislation designed to increase the concentration of wealth so you get a vicious cycle they'll get a capitalist system this would be self-regulating because it means during the 50s and 60s when the new regulation was around there were any financial crisis starting in the 70s the 80s with deregulation is cut some financial crisis but in a capitalist system every time if you actually have some crisis citigroup tanks okay think of our business that's what happens in heiresses an axis and what happens is that the bankers and the investors and so on they go running their bills now Catalina for another rich old story from attic in the last 30 years so there's nothing self-regulating about it we're seeing it right now it'll win obama obama came into office and the economic crisis the first again do is the economics tea or me pick the guy who created in crisis it was even coming in the business journals were for Lulu we picked the guys who created the crisis he excluded all of all other critics including very prestigious Nobel laureates Miller's all out so of course they design programs that much benefited the guys who created in prices to taxpayers to the citizens of Boston Ashley a trillion dollars worth of bonuses altitude but the golden sacks the world wars culprits just announced extended needed a half million dollars of compensation for these guys in one pits of 1% being increase for their CEO who picks his word that census salaries these are all things happen to get the whole society but maybe well for the last 30 years during in population real incomes of premium segment people are getting by but much better work highland security debt that's going up and asset inflation it's heavenly harp program it was just an interesting article by the inspector general of the tarp program the tarp was available tonight he's the guy who's the inspector general tiring bitter article worth reading his name's Neil Barofsky he pointed out that that bailout program was actually a legislative bargain the banks who were responsible for the crisis would be bailed out country catalyst principles but there were they some compensation for the victims so they would be efforts to stop foreclosures post and provide 82 so people who say their homes with what he says pastor Martin was implemented yes which Beth the half of the people who had voices from the political system the rest nothing student words okay that's what happens in the system with very high concentration credibly by concentration of wealth a very small sector of the population and within political power it's happening right in front of your eyes it's getting worse and worse they're setting the stage for the next crisis then I'm going to build out again in fact they have he points out for us within the same article that the credit rating agencies now are coming in the fact that when a corporate went investment put a bank tanks it will be mailed out there counting that in with a giggle credit so they're putting a cheap credit which gives an extra advantage that's our version of captains it's a little bit suit you want to call it a night it's a system of economic and political benefits from the extreme wealthy and the rest can survive somehow they Canada that's what happening the university so all of these things are combining even the soul roll having parallel there is a cultural aspect like the fear of student independence the sphere free event is very frankly freedom is everything so you want to make sure people that you were properly indoctrinated and control like choices here insecure can take chances in fact if you listen to Helen Greenspan these people say talent before the West collapse he was district they read his testimony to Congress every year but he's crowing about the wonderful economies controlled ease the ministry he says straight out its best feature is what he calls growing worker and security that's the best economy and that makes sense on his associates growing worker and security means the working people are afraid to ask for a raise engagement for decent working conditions or some tender to jobs and so I must grab on anything they can that's great mixing color be more healthy by standard economic principles and so us growing workers trees great thing that has same students if they're insecure they're going to go out the streets I mean you could also argue that the people who are in charge of indoctrinating those students are also this important my schedule ization in the labor force at the academic waiver for that's right because you have to discipline both students and teachers when the Trilateral Commission goes after the institutions responsible to the indoctrination of the young they're saying it's the teachers the you know the minister jean church figures the people charging this are out of control it would not but they for them to look like that but they're outta control Anthony and what's called casualisation labor force or convex tenure and Sonia that's ways of disappointing faculty an academic freedom always had two aspects freedom to teach and freedom to learn that you gotta come back really University University the military defecting university in 1568 the whole university was closed down for a couple of weeks literally a couple of students for when were students those of you tur the activist movements probably know like Albert students did they decided to pelicans very conservative quiet campus 68 inside organiz a sanctuary for the dirt going on so some kid decides he wants dessert instead of just go to jail he organized a sanctuary and stay with to leave FB I don't cry and that they're into mission was much better they did it very young marine dessert or gesture he knew what he was doing a lot of briefing go through it in the consequences work guy they wanted to do it so they started press conference in the student center students well in about three days all this was closed literally there was thousands of students in the student center 24 hours a day doing everything was that the Institute herself officially devoted a full day just to consideration of the uses of technology and society Balu this domain technological is from the world the question never literally people to do the work so March was nineteen sixty-nine they would set aside for scotland's rally sorts of things on the uses of technology in the society that came a lot of things like the Union Concerned Scientists the whole culture the place changed it wasn't 68 but it's just a change place through specific that's a kind of thing new version it would be open to the ridge right from the University concern itself with the use of technology not saying they should that's not the Institute's child but it can be open to letting these issues be discussed in the native and it was done very constructive ok one of the issues in is a school of public affairs that's beaten down by Peter book he's the head of barrick gold well what should be done I'm feeling is that I should say and mining is an excellent international skin it's extremely destructive as environmentally destructive its destructive communities all over the place instead and tennis way of the lead has the worst record in the world and gold mining is definitely the worst seem so myself so I think what the book global therapists do naught to do is investigate money and not investigated but offer a voice for people who have no voice you go down to like the sovereign entities and protect themselves remaining well they have but that's a perfectly fine research and teaching engagement for University and have a bit controlling pretty good active actions but I think you see things like that trapped by leaving what to carry on indoctrination

Channel: TheEthanwashere

Views: 672

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Noam, Chomsky, Democracy, the, Public, University, critical, social, research, education

Id: QiNqz38Yl8M

Length: 48min 43sec (2923 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2013