Noam ChomskyLANGUAGE AND POLITICS

EDITED BY C. P. OTERO I EXPANDED SECOND EDITION

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Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations xivEditor's Preliminary Note to the Second Edition- 1Editor's Preliminary Note to the First Edition • 3Introduction: The Third Emancipatory Phase of History 9

by Carlos-Peregrfn Otero1. Justice versus Power2. Enlightenment versus Inquisitiohalism3. Responsibility versus Respectability4. Innatism versus Environmentalism5. Anarchism versus Elitism6. Coda

Interviews1. The Intellectual as Prophet (11 April 1968) 59

Vietnam and afterDifferences between FieldsThe Relation of Logic and Mathematics to LinguisticsA Dim or Hopeful Future?

2. A Cartesian View of Language Structure (May 1968) 75Learning as an Input-Output RelationThe Abstract Character of the StructuresThe Disparity between Data and KnowledgeCommon Properties by Biological NecessityUnconscious KnowledgeFaculties of the MindLimitations of Common-Sense Knowledge

3. The Creative Experience (Winter 1969) 89Two Sources of InterestFrom Freud to Kohler and LashleyExplanation in LinguisticsConcern about Social Issues

4. Linguistics and Politics (Spring 1969) . 103The Effectiveness of Anti-War ActionsConditions for Revolutionary ChangeLinguistics and a Marxist-Anarchist PerspectiveRomantic Aesthetics and Modern Mathematics

5. The Major Problem of the Limits to Growth (Fall 1972) 119A Major Technique for Social ControlSubservience of the Intelligentsia

\ The Best Way to Influence the Human MindOnly One Technique for Government Intervention in the EconomyResponsibility of the Citizen of an Advanced Industrial Society

IV

6. Language Structure and Behaviorist Psychology (November 1972) 127Variety: Sources of HappinessUniformity in Language StructuresQuestions in EnglishStructure-Dependent OperationsSynthesis of Languages"New Economics": What it MeansBehaviorist PsychologyInternational AuthorityOpposition to Leadership

X 7. The Universities and the Corporations (May 1973) . 1 3 58. Class Consciousness and the Ideology of Power (January 1974) 143

Anarchism and Class AnalysisMarxism and Leninism

> The State and the Corporate SystemMarx versus Skinner

9. Materialism in Linguistics and the Morality Criterion 171(28 March 1977)A Perplexing Mystery

. The Ideological Fields versus the Natural SciencesThe Test of a Moralist's SincerityFree Enterprise or Fascist Enterprise?Sanitized HistoryAn Analogy for ProtestersThe Moral Level of an ActionThe American BloodbathWill versus KnowledgeIntellectuals as the New ClassThe Pathetic Fallacy

10. Oil Imperialism, and the U.S.-Israel Relationship (March 1977) 185A Shift from the Policy of the Mid-1950sSupport for a Two-State Political SetdementAn Extremely Hazardous GameA Possibility of Affecting Government Policy

11. Language Theory and the Theory of Justice (13 October 1977) 203Realism: Plato's QuestionModularity: A System of Mental OrgansThe Growth of a Mental Organ of Moral EvaluationA Galilean Revolution in Linguistics?

"'The Creativity of Language and Freedom of the WillDepartments of Oppression and DeathThe Difference Between Student and Faculty Attitudes

12. Language and the Human Mind (29 September 1978) 221Ontogenetic Development: From Embryo to Adult

IV

6. Language Structure and Behaviorist Psychology (November 1972) 127Variety: Sources of HappinessUniformity in Language StructuresQuestions in EnglishStructure-Dependent OperationsSynthesis of Languages"New Economics": What it MeansBehaviorist PsychologyInternational AuthorityOpposition to Leadership

7. The Universities and the Corporations (May 1973) . 1 3 58. Class Consciousness and the Ideology of Power (January 1974) "~143

Anarchism and Class AnalysisMarxism and LeninismThe State and the Corporate SystemMarx versus Skinner

9. Materialism in Linguistics and the Morality Criterion 171(28 March 1977)A Perplexing Mystery

. The Ideological Fields versus the Natural SciencesThe Test of a Moralist's SincerityFree Enterprise or Fascist Enterprise?Sanitized HistoryAn Analogy for ProtestersThe Moral Level of an ActionThe American BloodbathWill versus KnowledgeIntellectuals as the New ClassThe Pathetic Fallacy

10. Oil Imperialism and the U.S.-Israel Relationship (March 1977) 185A Shift from the Policy of the Mid-1950sSupport for a Two-State Political SetdementAn Extremely Hazardous GameA Possibility of Affecting Government Policy

11. Language Theory and the Theory of Justice (13 October 1977) 203Realism: Plato's QuestionModularity: A System of Mental OrgansThe Growth of a Mental Organ of Moral EvaluationA Galilean Revolution in Linguistics?The Creativity of Language and Freedom of the WillDepartments of Oppression and DeathThe Difference Between Student and Faculty Attitudes

12. Language and the Human Mind (29 September 1978) 221Ontogenetic Development: From Embryo to Adult

The Environment and the Mind: Errors that Children Never MakeThe Emergence and Development of Generative GrammarLearnability and Language Teaching

13. Ideological Reconstruction after Vietnam (7 June 1979) 243A Trilateralism Subject to QualificationSympathetic Solidarity versus Apathy and PassivityExtremely Ugly PoliciesThe Most Awesome Propaganda System in World History

. A Very Revealing IssueThe True Aim of a Social RevolutionBakunin's "Instinct for Freedom"A Rich Innate Endowment Shared across the Species

14. On Human Rights and Ideology (October 1979) 25315. An American View of the Ideological Confrontation of Our Time 259

(3 February 1980)Authentic Socialism versus LeninismThe "Game" Being Played by the SuperpowersSupport for Huge AtrocitiesAn Academic Counterpart to "The Deerhunter"The Real FearThe Illusion of Free and Open DebateWill Human Civilization Survive until the 21st Century?

16. U.S. Defense Responsibility? (8 April 1981) 273Appendix:Corporate Social Responsibility? (Spring 1978)

17. Human Rights and American Foreign Policy (21 September 1981) 277Most People are Not GangstersA System of Disguising Reality"Authoritarian" versus "Totalitarian"Categories without Policy Implications.Carter's Rhetoric had its Value

18. The Treachery of the Intelligentsia: A French Travesty 287(16 October 1981)Brainwashing Under FreedomThe Task for the PresentContrasting Views of 1968Sheer FabricationMore Widely Read Than in the 1960sA Vigorous Defense of "Bourgeois Freedoms"A Barrage of LiesA Sad Day for FranceFreedom to Express Horrendous ViewsEvaluation of the Nazi GenocideFascist-Style Institutions

V I •

The Moral Significance of one's Work and ActionsA Deliberate Effacement of the RecordRevealing Efforts to Disguise the FactsThe Factor of Primary Concern"Selective Outrage" DeconstructedA Struggle Without End

19. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act (January 1982) 299The Subservience of the Ideological SystemA Clear and Explicit Threat to Free ExpressionThe "Brazilianization" of American Society .

20. The Barbarism of Non-Communist Monsters (Spring 1982) 307Needs and WantsToo Central a TruthNo Possibility of Successful DevelopmentAmerican Terrorism against CubaThe Actual American Impact upon the World

21. The Lessons of the Vietnam War (October 1982) 31322. The Disarmament Debate: New Directions (15 December 1982) 32123. America in the World (1 February 1983) 32924. Priorities for the Peace Movement (4 June 1983) 335

Differences with the European .Disarmament MovementMovements Activity in the 1970sA Dismal Record of Reaching the PublicElectoral Tactics and Popular SupportConfrontation in the Middle East

25. Politics and Science (16 June 1983) 341i. Politics

A Form of Idiocy Found in Intellectual CirclesReasons for Devoting Political Action to Foreign PolicyThe Forms of Service of the "Secular Priesthood"Assistance in "Intellectual Self-Defense"

K The Power of the Corporate SystemThe Technique of Feigned DissentA Truly Revolutionary Challenge

*CThe Usefulness of a "Great Satan"ii. Science/Linguistics

A'Radically Different Conception of GrammarThe Search for Experimental Correlates"Marxists" Who Understand Litde about Science or MarxThe Contrast with PiagetGenerative Grammar and PsychoanalysisGenerative Grammar and Bakunin's "Instinct for Freedom"Moral Barriers to Control and Domination

vii

26. The Manufacture of Consent (Summer 1-983) 359Discovering What Is HiddenThe Plague of European Civilization •An Unending TaskSubversive SchoolingA Fundamental Human NeedAnarchism versus "Marxism"

27. Language as a Key to Human Nature and Society 367. (24 September 1983)

Is Anything Really Learned?Thought without LanguageLanguage without CommunicationA Model for Human StudiesLimited Scientific CapacityA Condition of Temporary Ignorance?

28. Things No Amount of Learning Can Teach (November 1983) 375A Close Parallel to EmbryologyPiaget versus SkinnerThe Riddle of Free WillThe New Work in Art and ScienceOne Major Scientific Revolution

29. What's New in Reagan's Program? (13 November 1983) . 389A Replay of the Kennedy AdministrationA Difference in American PowerThe Lesson of KeynesianismThe Real Threat: A Truly Independent EuropeControl over Europe and Japan »A Commitment to an Israeli SpartaIn Accord about a PLO of the Arafat TypeIncorporation of China in the U.S. Dominated System

30. American Middle East Policy (18 October 1984) 407Exclusion of the PalestiniansU.S. (Unconditional) Aid to IsraelThe Nixon DoctrineCrucial Parallel DevelopmentsA Whole Barrage of Techniques to Silence CriticismIsrael's Terrorism and ViolenceAn Old Zionist Propaganda Line

31. The Media as a Mirror of Society—But Not Quite in the 423Usual Sense (21 October 1984)A Racist AssumptionSomething DeeperAttempt at Inducement as Fact

viii

32. Knowledge of Language, Human Nature, and the Role 429of Intellectuals (2 November 1984)Language as a Computational System: Mental RepresentationsA Surprising Finding about the Human BrainA Really .Serious MisunderstandingThe Structure Determined by the GrammarHumanly Interesting or Intellectually Interesting?'The New Approach of the 1980sA More Optimistic Progressive World ViewAn Attractive Ideology to the Modern IntelligentsiaLeninism, Fascism and NeoliberalismSocial Implications of the Two Views of Human NatureThe Standard Role of the IntelligentsiaThe Most Free and Most Indoctrinated SocietyThe U.S. System as a One-Party SystemImmigration and Depoliticization: The Crushing of Dissent

33. Tactics and Strategies for the Peace Movement (November 1984) 447Stemming the Flood at its SourceAn Umbrella for Intervention and AggressionThe Truth about the Soviet SystemA Catalyst to Mass Popular ActionNo Magic Answers

34. Aspects of a Theory of Mind (December 1984) 453Advances in the Psychology of LanguageInnate Ideas, Universal Grammar, and Core GrammarThe Role of "Parameters" in Language AcquisitionA General Theory of Learning?Human Intelligence and Psychology as ScienceThe Innate Basis of Morality

35. Politics and Language (1 December 1984) 471A Fundamental Aspect of Human Intelligence

V Abuse of LanguageMeans of Intellectual Self-DefenseThe Conquest of the Western HemisphereComparable Genocidal ActsPro-Communist and Pro-Israel Intellectuals

36. Israel: The Strategic Asset (23 March 1985) 487A "Strategic Asset": a Kind of an Attack DogThe Largest and Cheapest Energy Resources in the WorldA Barrier to "Nationalist Pressure"The "Peace Process": A Stricdy Orwellian Term"Terror": Resistance by Another NameA Consistent Attempt at a Real Peace ProcessMore Support than the Zionist Organization Had

IX

Not a Military But a Political DangerThe Real Enemies of Israel

37. Alternatives to the Cold War (5 October 1985) 50338. The Question for Canadians—and Not Only Canadians 509

(November 1985)One Crucial Issue: Meaningful Self-determination ~*~The Major Danger of Nuclear WarUsing Resources for Domestic PurposesA Weakened American PositionThe Largest Per Capita Military Exporter in the WorldThe Meaninglessness of Arms NegotiationsThe Military System as a System of Industrial ManagementA Way to Predict When the Russians Aren't Quite as Evil

39. The First Prime-Time Bombing in History (Late April 1986) 51940. The Right Turn in U.S. Policy (22 October 1986) 527

Scale of Protest and Significant ChangeAn Administration Committed to LawlessnessThe CIA in Central America and the Rest of the World

\ The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Giant Corporations)Conservatism, Liberalism, Social DemocracyGorbachev's Incredible Series of OffersA Disease of the Intelligentsia

41. Political Discourse and the Propaganda System 541(24 October 1986)Undermining the Possibility of Independent ThoughtRetail and Wholesale Terrorism ExplainedInstitutions for Indoctrination 'Experts in LegitimationThe Utter Servility of the MediaA Very Sharp Decline, since die Middle AgesThe Merciless European SavagesThe Sense of the LeftTwo National Groups that Claim Self-Determination .Racist Attitudes Toward the Third WorldThe Holocaust as a Justification for OppressionChanges in Anti-Semitism

42. A Really New Way of Looking at Language (November 1987) 575/The Creative Use of Language

The Irrelevance of Behaviorist DoctrineMental Computations •The Most Complex and Intricate Biological SystemA Very Radical Departure from the TraditionThe Environment and Human Development 'What Language Should be Taught in the Schools?

43. Techniques of Marginalization (24 January 1988) 583A Very Conservative CritiqueThe "Crisis of Democracy" and the "Right Turn"The Effect of Domestic DissidenceThe Media Coverage of the Indochina WarMcCarthy's Bid for Political Power,A Profile of the Non-VotersA Convenient Device to Induce FearGorbachev's Policies"National Security" DecodedA Familiar Psychological MechanismShort-Term Planning OnlyAnywhere Outside the United StatesAre International Affairs Harder than Sports?Misunderstood ScandalsAn Outright Political Assassination

44. The Cognitive Revolution/I (26 January 1988) 607Philosophy and ScienceNewspeak and the Public Relations Industry"Behavior Problems" or Independence of Mind?The Destruction of the Anti-Fascist Resistance .The "Greatest Moral Act in History"Carter's Marshall Plan for NicaraguaA Government Driven Underground by Its Own PopulationA Potential Mass Base for a Fascist Movement

yAnother View of the World45. The Cognitive Revolution, II (28 January 1988) 629

A Transitory Historical PhaseA General Tendency to ConformMoral MonstersThe Anti-Apartheid MovementScience and PhilosophyDescartes' LogicAn Instinct for FreedomAn Evolutionary ErrorA Kind of Social PathologyMolecular Biology and Neural Structures

46. Helping People Persuade Themselves (15 February 1988) 645Elites and their PowerThe Domestic Population as a Potential EnemyThe Unnaturalness of the State SystemThe Fascist Attack on the Ideals of the EnlightenmentThe Threat of Religious FanaticismMoral Dilemmas

XI

Far beyond McCarthyA Matter of Institutions, Not IndividualsA Child of die Enlightenment

47. A Historic Shift in American Politics (16 March 1988) 661Quasi-fascism, International Terrorism and Military KeynesianismA Shameful PeriodAn Extreme of Lawlessness, Violence and Blind GreedA Revival of Some Kind of Populism

48. The Only State Officially Committed to Terrorism . 669(30 March 1988) • •

49. A Candid View of Israel and the Occupied Territories 673(May 1988)A Significant Peace MovementPeace Now and the PLO ComparedPropaganda as ExplanationRacism, Oppression, IgnoranceExtremely Determined ResistersPolitical Agreement as a Temporary ExpedientA Real Double Standard .Appendix:

Harmful Pressure for Israel (6 March 1981)50. No Stone Left Unturned (23 May 1988) 693

A Drift towards aNew Deal-Style Social DemocracyStudents and DemocratizationHidden TruthsThe Significance of the Jackson Campaign

, A Serious Blow to the American Economy51. The Plague of the Modern Age (25 May 1988) 701

Official Terrorism and its VarietiesA Remarkable Example of Servility to PowerActions Reminiscent of Those of Fascist StatesShared Responsibility 'The Culture of TerrorismThe Sin of "Ultranationalism"Many Means of Criminal ActionUnacceptable ConclusionsIn Service of the Fifth FreedomThe Reasons for the Propaganda Campaign ,

52. Building up for Military Attack (29 October 1990) 713The Issue? Not Access to Oil but a Lever of World ControlA United Front on Sanctions ^An Internal Split in the United StatesThe Pretense of High Principle

xii

53. After the Fall (22 November 1991) 721The Main Theme of Modern History ."Ultranationalism" and "Regime Change": A Problem and a SolutionA Typical Third World PatternNo More DeterrenceRhetorical Change in the Framework of PropagandaOctober 1917: A Coup More than a Revolution t •Fascism as an Efficient Technique of DevelopmentLanguage, Like Other Organs, Is Not Well-Designed for Use

54. From "Communism" to "Terrorism" and the "Drug War" 737(21 February 2002) •Human Rights Violations and U.S. Military Aid and TrainingDrug Criminalization as a Technique of Social ControlFrom Criminalization to Prevention

55. The Fateful Triangle: A Fearful Asymmetry (2 April 2002) 743From a Potential Bantustan to a Demolition of die Palestinian

AuthorityEvasion of the Central Immediate IssuesTrying to Destroy the Main Forces of Secular Arab NationalismThe Plan for the Palestinians: "You Shall Continue to Live Like

' Dogs"A "Hysterical" Israeli Reaction Backed by the United States

56. The Enormous Impact of State-Directed International 749Terrorism (3 July 2002)American Reactionary Jingoism and Popular Commitment to the

Rights WonProposed Measures that Probably Harm SafetyRejection of the Most Elementary Moral PrinciplesHealthy Reactions to the Restricted Use of the Term "Terrorism"The U.S. Planners' "Vision" of an Eventual Palestinian StateTwo Opposed Views of "Globalization": Worldwide Solidarity versus

Investor RightsThe World Social Forum: Towards the First Genuine International?

57. The Iraq Operation, Before and After (29 August 2002, 75512 April 2003)Evil Monsters and Their Terrible Crimes—and AccomplicesA Country Devastated by a Decade of SanctionsIsrael: Virtually an Offshore U.S. Military BaseSuppressing the Facts: An Important Service to State ViolenceA Crucial Requirement: U.S. AcquiescenceA Particularly Stunning HypocrisyThe "Samson Complex": An Element of Israeli PlanningLongstanding Background Reasons and Immediate Domestic NeedsThe Prime Issue of Contention

Language and Politics xi i i

A Colossal "Exemplary" Action: Neither "Pre-emptive" Nor"Preventive"

The Prime Responsibility of the American People58. Marxism, Anarchism, and Alternative Futures (May 1995) 775

Anarchism: Placing the-Burden of Proof on AuthorityGrassroots Democracy versus Parliamentary DemocracyThe Spanish Revolution versus the Bolshevik Coup

•''The "New Class": Totalitarian to NeoliberalThe Early Marx as a Figure of the Late EnlightenmentMoral Agents with Some Conception of Human NatureFrom Two Superpowers to One: Reasons to be ConcernedCorporate'Mercantilism ("Capitalism"): Unaccountable Private

TyranniesOminous Portent—and Signs of Great Hope

Bibliographical Note • 786Index ' 791