[Peace-discuss] Chomsky views…

[Morton K. Brussel]

An interesting paragraph, from an interview with Eva Gollinger at

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=13946

…EVA: On that note, the theme of the Book Fair in Venezuela this year  
is "United States: Is a Revolution Possible?" Is it?

CHOMSKY: I think it's just below the surface. I mean there is  
tremendous discontent. A large majority of the population for years  
has felt that the government doesn't represent them, that it  
represents special interests. In the Reagan years this went up to  
about 80% of the population. If you look at public attitudes and  
public policy, there is a huge gulf between them. Both political  
parties are far to the right of the population on a host of major  
issues. Just to take some examples; Read in this morning's New York  
Times, September 21st, there's a column by Paul Krugmann, who's sort  
of far left of the media, sort of a left, liberal commentator, a very  
good economist, who's been talking for some time about the horrible  
health system in the United States, it's a disaster, twice the per  
capita expenses of any other country and some of the industrial  
companies and some of the worst outcomes in the industrial world. And  
he has a column this morning that starts out by saying, hopefully,  
well now it turns out that maybe universal health care is becoming  
politically possible. Now that's a very interesting comment,  
particularly when it's coming from the left end of the media. What  
does it mean for it to become politically possible? For decades it's  
been supported by an overwhelming majority of the population but it  
was never politically possible. Now it's becoming politically  
possible. Why? He doesn't say why, but the reason is that  
manufacturing corporations are being severely harmed by the  
hopelessly inefficient and costly healthcare system in the United  
States. It's like how it costs a lot more to produce a car in Detroit  
than a couple of miles north in Windsor Canada because they have an  
efficient, functioning healthcare system. So by now there is  
corporate pressure from the manufacturing sector to do something to  
fix up the outrageous healthcare system. So it's becoming politically  
possible. When it's just the large majority of the population, it's  
not politically possible. The assumptions behind that should be  
obvious, but they're interesting. Politically possible does not mean  
the population supports it. What politically possible means is that  
some sectors of concentrated capital support it. So if the  
pharmeceutical industries and the financial institutions are against  
it, it's not politically possible. But if manufacturing industries  
come out in favor of it, well then maybe it begins to become  
politically possible. Those are the general assumptions, we're not  
talking about the left liberal commentary. I'm not talking about the  
editorials in the Wall Street Journal, that's the spectrum of  
opinion. Something is politically possible if it's support by major  
concentrations of capital. It doesn't matter what the public thinks,  
and you see this on international issues too. Like take what may be  
the major international issue right now: Is the United States going  
to invade Iran? That could be an utter monstrosity. Every viable  
presidential candidate - not Dennis Kucinich, but the ones that are  
really viable, has come out and said yeah, we have the right to  
invade Iran. The way they say it is, "all options are on the table",  
meaning, "we want to attack them, we can attack them." That's almost  
the entire political spectrum, but what does the population think?  
Well, about 75% of the population is opposed to any threats against  
Iran and wants to enter into diplomatic relations with them. But  
that's off the spectrum, in fact, it isn't even reported. But it's  
not part of the discussion. It's the same way with Cuba. Every since  
polls began in the 1970s, a considerable amount of the population  
wants to enter into normal diplomatic relations with Cuba and end the  
economic strangulation and the terror, which they don't know about,  
but they would be against that too. It's not an option, because state  
interests won't allow it. And that's separate from the population,  
and it's not discussed. Do a search of media and journals, including  
left journals and you just don't find it. Well, it's a very free  
country but also very much business controlled.
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