[Peace-discuss] [sf-core] The AWARE S.O.A.P. Box

[Morton K. Brussel]

Yes, for women, for people of color, for homosexuals, perhaps for education, there have been positive changes, but if one looks at the state of the world, and more specifically the USA—economic inequality, depletion of resources (organic and inorganic), the biosystem (demise of species), overpopulation, pollution, surveillance by governments, hope for oncoming generations, especially in the developed world— things look bad. Also true is that nuclear proliferation and the danger it poses has increased. The press is more homogeneous and failing, and unions have lost power. Certainly health conditions have improved (for those who can pay), and technology has exploded, not always for the good. And we have a world in which US imperialism is more extensive than ever (with military bases all over the globe), even if wobbly in places. Safety nets in the western world are disappearing, economically and for civil rights. Unemployment is rampant. 

These threats to the globe are far worse than 50 years ago. Fatuous religiosity also is on the rise, and distrust in science goes along with this. Finally, our democracy has retreated disastrously under the influence of big money. Even Chomsky has noted that the U.S. is in decline, but that seems to be true of Europe as well.  And the tale remains to be told about the future of the BRICS. 

Not to mention what climate change may hold for human populations. 

Finally, it is apparent that the capitalist system, more than ever, needs to be supplanted if there is to be a healthy sustainable world civilization. How to get there from here has not yet become clear, if indeed it is possible. 

I'm as old as Chomsky, and my experience tells me that he is wrong in stating that activism against the Vietnam war was less strong than what we've had in Iraq, Afghanistan, and perhaps what is to come. The dramatic demonstrations even on the UIUC campus were never reproduced against the ME Asian wars.

--mkb


On May 17, 2012, at 5:27 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> Q: ... What have you changed in the past 45 years?
> 
> Chomsky: I personally did not change anything. I was part of a  
> movement and this movement accomplished many things. The world today  
> is fundamentally different from the world 45 years ago. The actions  
> for civil rights, human rights, women’s rights and environmental  
> protection, resistance against oppression and violence have  
> substantially influenced the world. I cannot understand how you can  
> argue nothing has changed.
> 
> Q: Do you believe the world is better today than 40 or 50 years ago?
> 
> Chomsky: Obviously! Walk along the open fields here at the  
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Half of the students are women;  
> a third belongs to an ethnic minority. People are dressed more  
> casually and are engaged for all possible things. This place was very  
> different when I came here 50 years ago. Then you saw white men,  
> formally dressed and only interested in their own work. You could see  
> the same development in Germany and all over the world.
> 
> Q: But are students more political? Today’s generation is often  
> reproached for being disinterested in the world.
> 
> Chomsky: I think that reproach is false. The period of high  
> politization at the universities was very short -- from 1968 to 1970.  
> Before that, students were apolitical. Consider the Vietnam War, one  
> of the greatest crimes since the Second World War. Four or five years  
> went by until some form of visible protest stirred in the US. That  
> quickly ebbed away in the 1970s. The mood was very different before  
> the Iraq war. To my knowledge, the Iraq war was the first war in  
> history where there were demonstrations before it began. My students  
> missed the lectures to demonstrate. That would never have happened 50  
> years ago. The protests did not prevent the war but limited it. The US  
> was never able to do in Iraq a fraction of what it had done in Vietnam.
> 
> Q: Were those protests only a straw fire?
> 
> Chomsky: No. The politization today is much greater than in the 1950s.  
> Forms of lasting activism developed that enabled many of our battles  
> to be won. For example, there was a continuous progress in women’s  
> rights. If I had asked my grandmother whether she was oppressed, she  
> wouldn’t have known what I was talking about. My mother said: "I am  
> oppressed but I don’t know what to do!" My daughter would shout to me  
> after such a question: Our world is more human!
> 
> Q: Do you believe in historical progress?
> 
> Chomsky: Progress is slow but dramatic over long time horizons. Think  
> of the abolition of slavery or the development of freedom of  
> expression. Rights are not simply bestowed. People who joined forces  
> and banded together realized them. Still progress is not a linear  
> development. There are also times of backward steps.
> 
> Q: If there are times of progress and times of backward steps, will  
> the world be better in 50 years than today?
> 
> Chomsky: What will be in 50 years depends strongly on what the young  
> generation does today. Two great dangers threaten the existence of the  
> world: our relation to the environment and the danger that starts from  
> nuclear weapons. If we do not champion environmental protection more  
> vigorously today, we could be mired in a grave environmental crisis in  
> 50 years, let alone the risks of nuclear weapons. The terrible  
> catastrophe of Fukushima reminds us that the non-military use of  
> nuclear power is fraught with extreme risks. We cannot ignore this  
> under any circumstances!
> 
> Q: In 60 years students of today will be as old as you. What must they  
> do to look back on their life with satisfaction?
> 
> Chomsky: Naturally they could say they lived contentedly with friends,  
> children and fun. But to really lead a fulfilled and satisfying life,  
> they should recognize problems and contribute to solving them. If they  
> cannot look back at 80 and say "I have accomplished something!," then  
> their life will not have succeeded.
> 
> Q: At 82, are you satisfied with what you achieved?
> 
> Chomsky: Being satisfied is impossible. My life has too many  
> dimensions, family, profession, politics and several others. In some  
> areas I am satisfied but not in others. The problems of this world are  
> quite great. Inequality in the US is at the level of the 1920s and the  
> economy still has tremendous influence in our society. I cannot be  
> satisfied!
> 
> Q: Political engagement like yours is rare among scholars. Are you  
> sometimes furious at the "servants of power" as you say or at  
> professor colleagues who only concentrate on their academic work?
> 
> Chomsky: I consider it immoral to be a supporter of a power system.  
> However that does not mean that I am furious at anyone. Scholars per  
> se do not have deeper political insights than other persons and are  
> not morally superior to others. But they are obligated to help  
> politicians seek and find the truth.
> 
> Q: That sounds like you are becoming mild in old age.
> 
> Chomsky: No. My views and attitudes have not changed in the course of  
> the decades. I still believe what I believed as a teenager.
> 
> Q: Is that good -- to still believe what you believed almost 70 years  
> ago?
> 
> Chomsky: Yes, when fundamental principles are involved. Obviously I  
> have changed my opinions in many questions -- but my ideals are the  
> same!
> 
> Q: You often say you are an anarchist. What do you mean by that?
> 
> Chomsky: Anarchists try to identify power structures. They urge those  
> exercising power to justify themselves. This justification does not  
> succeed most of the time. Then anarchists work at unmasking and  
> mastering the structures, whether they involve patriarchal families, a  
> Mafia international system or the private tyrannies of the economy,  
> the corporation.
> 
> Q: What was the key experience that made you an anarchist?
> 
> Chomsky: There was none. When I was twelve years old, I began to go to  
> secondhand bookshops. Many of them were run by anarchists who came  
> from Spain. Therefore it seemed very natural to me to be an anarchist.
> 
> Q: Should all students become anarchists?
> 
> Chomsky: Yes. Students should challenge authorities and join a long  
> anarchist tradition.
> 
> Q: "Challenge authorities" -- a liberal or a moderate leftist could  
> accept that invitation.
> 
> Chomsky: As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes  
> illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are  
> anarchists. What they call themselves doesn’t matter to me.
> 
> Q: Who or what must challenge today’s student generation?
> 
> Chomsky: This world is full of suffering, distress, violence and  
> catastrophes. Students must decide: does something concern you or not?  
> I say: look around, analyze the problems, ask yourself what you can do  
> and set out on the work!
> 
> [From <http://chomsky.info/interviews/20110614_en.htm>]
> 
> 
> On May 17, 2012, at 5:06 PM, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> 
>> Chomsky offers us insightful reflections, but one thing which I find  
>> troubling in his discourse, and I wonder if he does this  
>> purposefully and knowingly, it's that despite the apparent decline  
>> in our society in so many ways, he always ultimately says that it is  
>> better now than it was in the past. I think he is wrong here, but  
>> perhaps that is not a good message for activists.
>> 
>> --mkb
> 
> 
> 
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