Noam Chomsky on George Orwell, the Suppression of Ideas and the Myth of American Exceptionalism

headman today in a democracy now special we spend the hour with Noam Chomsky the world-renowned political dissident linguist author and Institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he's taught for more than half a century Noam Chomsky's penned more than a hundred books his newest because we say so a collection of his columns on Saturday Noam Chomsky spoke before a sold-out audience of nearly 1,000 people at the New School's auditorium here in New York City Chomsky discussed the persistence of US exceptionalism Republican efforts to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal and the normalization of us-cuba relations professor Chomsky also explained why he believes the US and its closest allies namely Saudi Arabia and Israel are undermining prospects for peace in the Middle East his speech was titled on power and ideology the role of concentrated power in shaping the ideological framework that dominates perception interpretation discussion choice of action all of that is too familiar to require much common tonight I'd like to discuss a critically important example but first the color words on one of the most perceptive analysts of this process George Orwell Orwell is famous for his searching and sardonic critique of the way thought is controlled by force under totalitarian dystopia but much less is not known is his discussion of how similar outcomes are achieved in free societies he's speaking of course of England and he wrote that although the country is quite free nevertheless unpopular ideas can be suppressed without the use of force gave a couple of examples provided a few words of explanation which were to the point the one particularly pertinent comment was his observation on a quality education in the best schools where it is instilled into you that there are certain things that it simply wouldn't do to say or we may add even to think one reason why not much attention is paid to this essay is that it wasn't published was found decades later in his unpublished papers it was intended as the introduction to his famous animal farm bitter satire of Stalinist totalitarianism why it wasn't published is apparently unknown but I think perhaps you can speculate Orwell's observations on thought control under freedom that come to mind in considering the raging debate today about the Iran nuclear deal which currently occupies center stage I should say it's a raging debate in the United States virtually alone in almost everywhere else the deal has been greeted with relief and optimism and without even parliamentary review this is one of the many striking examples of the famous concept of American exceptionalism the fact that America is an exceptional nation is regularly intoned by virtually every political figure and I think more revealingly the same is true of prominent academic and public intellectuals can select almost at random take for example the professor of the science of Government at Harvard his distinguished liberal scholar government adviser is writing in Harvard's prestigious journal international security and there he explains that unlike other countries the national identity of the United States is defined by a set of universal political and economic values namely liberty democracy equality private property and markets so the US has a solemn duty to maintain its international primacy for the benefit of the world and since this is a matter of definition we can dispense with the tedious work of empirical verification so I won't spend any time on that or let's turn to the leading left liberal intellectual journal the New York Review there a couple of months ago we read from the former chair of the Carnegie Endowment for international peace that American contributions to international security global economic growth freedom and human wellbeing have been so self-evidently unique and have been so clearly directed to others benefit that Americans have long believed that the United States amounts to a different kind of country while others push their national interests the United States tries to advance universal principles no evidence is given because it's hidden matter of definition that's very easy to continue it's only fair to add that there's nothing at all exceptional about this American exceptionalism was standard for every great power very familiar from other Imperial states and their days in the Sun Britain France others and this is true interestingly even from very honorable figures from whom one might have expected that better so John Stuart Mill for example in England to mention a significant case which raises interesting questions about intellectual life and intellectual standards well in some respects American exceptionalism is not in doubt I just mentioned one example the current Iran nuclear deal here the exceptionalism of the United States its isolation is dramatic and starved there are actually many other cases but this is the one I'd like to think about this evening and in fact us isolation might soon increase the Republican organization I hesitate to say party is dedicated to undermining the deal in interesting ways with the kind of unanimity that one doesn't find in political parties though it's familiar in such former organizations as the old Communist Party democratic centralism everyone has to say the same thing that's one of many indications that the Republicans are no longer a political party in the normal sense despite pretentions commentary and so on

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 266,209

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, DN, News, Politics, democracynow.org, Video, Independent Media, Daily News, Breaking News, World News, Interview, Noam Chomsky (Author), The New School (College/University), Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (College/University), US Exceptionalism, US politics, International politics, US Foreign policies, United States Of America (Country)

Id: 9Qe4uL8pJuE

Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2015