Noam Chomsky - Hume's Paradox

all kind of authoritarian structures in the world they all ought to be challenged very few of them can resist that challenge they survive mainly because they not challenged they're not really very strong they look strong but there's a point that was made by David Hume a couple hundred years ago with it's worth bearing in mind he raised the kind of paradox of power he said how does power sustain itself he said if you think about it power is always in the hands of the people who are oppressed it's in the hands of the governed they really have power and it says it's true of the most oppressive society what we would call totalitarian society as of the most free power is in the hands of the governed so how come they submit themselves to the authority of others is it well forces an element but he said the real element opinion you have to control their opinion of course he was in favor of it you know he's a Tory so he says well the what you have to do is make sure you control the opinion of the people meaning make them believe you know make them saturate their minds with ideology carry out where we call propaganda didn't have the term in those days and control their opinion and you got them that means you you change their aspirations you restrict their aspirations to personal things to commodities to break down the natural bonds among people force them to forget what they understand you know that they basically want freedom and independence and justice and so on everybody knows every child understands that they have to work really hard to drive it out of their heads and if you can drive it out of their heads and you control their opinion then they'll submit you know and they'll submit whether you're a brutal state or more free society in fact it's more important in the free societies in the 20th century when it be you know in Humes day there wasn't much difference every society was absolute is but as the societies differentiated over the years with popular struggles and winning the franchise and so on and so forth the difference between the freer societies and the more you know totalitarian or command societies became clearer and a point was began to be understood that Hume didn't talk about and that is that control of opinion is much more important in the free societies so like in say Soviet Russia they really care much with people thought a Franco Spain let's say fascist state people read much more broadly and widely than they do in the United States I would like say that's true in fact you know you could go to a Marxist bookstore you know I mean if you got out of line too much ok they send you to the torture chamber in downtown Madrid but the since there were techniques of control just by force there was not much you know wasn't much concern about what people thought and sort of believe what you like will beat you over the head with a bludgeon you know when you get to the freer societies there's a lot more concern with what people think and that has been understood that's part of the reason for the rise of the public relations industry in the United States public relations industries propaganda agency of business which was it's an American creation you know it's created in the early part of the century to try to as they put it in to control people's minds because that's you know I don't know if they read human you know it's not a deep point anybody can understand it without reading you know they understood that unless you control people's minds were going to be in trouble people's mind you know the what was called in the business press the greatest hazard facing industrialists is the rising political power of the masses I'm quoting I mean recognize that the business press is very Marxist super Marxist I mean all the values are inverted you know but they believe in class struggle they talk about the masses you know and beating down the masses and all that sort of thing in fact business press reads kind of like malice trapped little red books and things just with all the values reversed and they understood that you've got to control people's opinion because as human put it powers in the hands of the governed if they ever realize it and if they realize it and they try to recognize what their own values are and pursue them we're really going to be in trouble because they're not going anyway control people

Channel: Chomsky's Philosophy

Views: 127,328

Rating: 4.9456592 out of 5

Keywords: Noam Chomsky, David Hume, Hume's paradox, socialism, class, working class, power, political philosophy, propaganda, oppression

Id: VF8DsIVWDcs

Length: 4min 22sec (262 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 30 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/princip1]

Hume was a Tory

WTF I hate Hume now.

[u/H25H]

Here are some sources.

http://www.econlib.org/library/LFBooks/Hume/hmMPL4.html

NOTHING appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as FORCE is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular. The soldan° of EGYPT, or the emperor of ROME, might drive his harmless subjects, like brute beasts, against their sentiments and inclination: But he must, at least, have led his mamalukes,° or prætorian bands,° like men, by their opinion.

https://zcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/chomsky/pfrm/pfrm-13.html

That's something that David Hume pointed out a couple of centuries ago. In his work on political theory, he describes the paradox that, in any society, the population submits to the rulers, even though force is always in the hands of the governed.

Ultimately the governors, the rulers, can only rule if they control opinion -- no matter how many guns they have. This is true of the most despotic societies and the most free, he wrote. If the general population won't accept things, the rulers are finished.

[u/majikmyk]

This is what kanye was trying to say but didn't know how. Haha. Kanye needs some Chomsky in his life

[u/Foldmat]

What is a Tory?