Noam is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Philosophy at the
Massachusettes Institute of Technology. In a 2005 poll by Prospect
magazine and Foreign Affairs he was voted the most important public
intellectual alive. Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible
as one of the 10 most quoted sources in history - and is the only
writer among them still alive. 
noamchomsky@thecommentfactory.com
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Returning to the US, the civilizing impact of the activism of the ’60s naturally elicited efforts to restore order and discipline. One component has been the state-corporate economic programs, which, particularly since the Reagan years, have broken the link between economic growth and social and economic health. Under these programs of financialization of the economy, real wages for the majority have stagnated while the limited benefits system declined, and inequality has soared to unprecedented heights
In thinking about international affairs, it is useful to keep in mind several principles of considerable generality and import. The first is the maxim of Thucydides: the strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must. It has an important corollary: every powerful state relies on specialists in apologetics, whose task is to show that what the strong do is noble and just, and if the weak suffer it is their fault. In the contemporary West, these specialists are called “intellectuals,” and with only marginal exceptions, they fulfill their assigned task with skill and self-righteousness, however outlandish the claims, a practice that traces back to the origins of recorded history
Establishing US military bases in Colombia is only one part of a much broader effort to restore Washington’s capacity for military intervention. There has been a sharp increase in US military aid and training of Latin American officers, focusing on light infantry tactics to combat “radical populism” – a concept that sends shivers up the spine in the Latin American context.
Chomsky takes on the myths surrounding the US embargo on Cuba.
Noam Chomsky takes on Ehud Barak and discusses Israeli-US objectives in the Gaza offensive.
Chomsky takes on the President-elect.
Noam Chomsky explains why the Republican campaign has become so base.
Noam Chomsky takes on Alvaro Uribe.
