Noam Chomsky
SiFe II--
Demographics
Gender Male
Birth Name Avram Noam Chomsky
Birthplace Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Birth Date December 7, 1928
Ethnicity Jewish
Overview Ashkenazi
Nationality Prussian
Career Philosopher, linguist, political commentator, cognitive scientist, logician, activist, advocate, public intellectual
Color Season Dark Autumn
Notes and Motifs
Pi philosopher
Pi ideological extremist
Known for his work in linguistics, politics, and social criticism. Noam wrote the anti-war essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals”
Involved in the linguistics wars, having written the book Syntactic Structures; he created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program, and has been called “the father of modern linguistics”
Also co-wrote the book Manufacturing Consent
Since the 1960s, Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media
SiFe II-- Directive
SiFe II-- Directive
Chomsky: "It's dangerous when people are willing to give up their privacy."
Chomsky: "The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful."
Chomsky: "You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it."
Chomsky: "All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume."
Chomsky: "Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below."
Chomsky: "There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, 'That person I see is a savage monster;' instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do."
Chomsky: "If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion."
Chomsky: "In the US, there is basically one party - the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population."
Chomsky: "Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media."
Chomsky: "Israel is following policies which maximise its security threats... policies which choose expansion over security... policies which lead to their moral degradation, their isolation, their delegitimation, as they call it now, and very likely ultimate destruction. That's not impossible."
Chomsky: "The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people."
Chomsky: "As a Zionist youth leader in the 1940s, I was among those who called for a binational state in Mandatory Palestine. When a Jewish state was declared, I felt that it should have the rights of other states - no more, no less."
Chomsky: "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."