Chomsky: Wealthiest 1% Rule Our Politics -- But There's Hope in the Fight Against Global Capital

In the past thirty years there has been enormous concentration of wealth in a very tiny part of the population. Noam Chomsky talks about how to fight back.

June 14, 2011

Michael Lerner (ML): You have made many excellent analyses of the power of global capital and its capacity to undermine ordinary citizens’ efforts to transform the global reality toward a more humane and generous world. If there were a serious movement in the U.S. ready to challenge global capital, what should such a movement do? Or is it, as many believe, hopeless, given the power of capital to control the media, undermine democratic movements, and use the police/military power and the co-optive power of mass entertainment, endless spectacle, and financial compensations for many of the smartest people coming up through working-class and middle-income routes? What path is rational for a movement seeking to build a world of environmental sanity, social justice, and peace, yet facing such a sophisticated, powerful, and well-organized social order?

Noam Chomsky (NC): There is no doubt that concentrated private capital closely linked to the state has substantial resources, but on the other hand we shouldn’t overlook the fact that quite a bit has been achieved through public struggles in the U.S. over the years. In many respects this remains an unusually free country. The state has limited power to coerce, compared with many other countries, which is a very good thing. Many rights have been won, even in the past generation, and that provides a legacy from which we can move on. Struggling for freedom and justice has never been easy, but it has achieved progress; I don’t think we should assume that there are any particular limits.

At the moment we can’t realistically talk about challenging global capital, because the movements that might undertake such a task are far too scattered and atomized and focused on particular issues. But we can try to confront directly what global capital is doing right now and, on the basis of that, move on to further achievements. For example, it’s no big secret that in the past thirty years there has been enormous concentration of wealth in a very tiny part of the population, 1 percent or even one-tenth of 1 percent, and that has conferred extraordinary political power on a very tiny minority, primarily financial capital, but also more broadly on the executive and managerial classes. At the same time, for the majority of the population, incomes have pretty much stagnated, working hours have increased, benefits have declined -- they were never very good -- and people are angry, hostile, and very upset. Many people distrust institutions, all of them; it’s a volatile period, and it’s a period which could move in a very dangerous direction -- there are analogues, after all -- but it could also provide opportunities to educate and organize and carry things forward. One may have a long-term goal of confronting global capital, but there have to be small steps along the way before you could even think of undertaking a challenge of that magnitude in a realistic way.

ML: Do you see any strategy for overcoming the fragmentation that exists among social movements to help people recognize an overriding shared agenda?

NC: One failing of the social movements that I’ve noticed over many years is that while they are focusing on extremely crucial and important social issues like women’s rights, environmental protections, and so on, they have tended to ignore or downplay the economic and social crises faced by working people. It’s not that they are completely ignored, but they are downplayed. And that has to be overcome, and there are ways to do it. So, to take a concrete example right near where I live, right now there is a town near Boston where a multinational corporation is closing down a local plant because it’s not profitable enough from the point of view of the multinational. Members of the workforce have offered to purchase the plant and the equipment, and the multinational doesn’t want to do that; it would rather lose money than offer the opportunity for a worker self-managed plant that might well become successful. And the multinational has the power to do what it wants, of course. But sufficient popular support -- community support, activist support, and so on -- could swing the balance. Things like that are happening all over the country.

in full: http://www.alternet.org/story/151292/chomsky:_wealthiest_1_rule_our_politics_--_but_there%27s_hope_in_the_fight_against_global_capital?page=entire

Jamie Johnson's two films:

The One Percent
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819791/

Born Rich
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342143/

the left allows it by ignoring the 1% ers best weapon- talk radio- while it is used to turn molehills into mountains in a day and keep them big to distract us from important stuff, swiftboat and intimidate those who would do the right thing, and generally make democracy impossible. there is no more effective tool for determining what is and what isn't acceptable in US media and politics, no bigger PC cop and censor-by-threat.

chomsky is great, but like many other thinkers on the left, they read and watch, and the right's most important weapon is all around them but invisible, taking us to the cleaners because there is NO organized real time response to it.

"news" that could have easily discredited the propaganda they spew..but they're too bust spewing
their own. The Telecommunications Act 1996 has had horrific consequences for this country.

Nightly News with Brian Williams and idiots like Matt Lauer; David Gregory summed it up quite well
what American's should expect from these alleged reliable sources:

snip* Gregory vigorously praised the job which he and his "journalistic" colleagues did in the run-up to the Iraq War -- the period which Salon's Gary Kamiya called "one of the greatest collapses in the history of the American media." Proclaimed Gregory, with a straight face: "Questions were asked. I think we pushed. I think we prodded. I think we challenged the President. Not only those of us in the White House Press Corps did that, but others in the media landscape did that." Most revealingly of all, Gregory said:


I think there are a lot of critics who think that . . . . if we did not stand up and say this is bogus, and you're a liar, and why are you doing this, that we didn't do our job. I respectfully disagree. It's not our role.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/12/29/gregory/


Talk Radio is pathetic, but far too many American's are mislead by these hacks in the MSM, they lie by omission frequently.

ty where idiots feel empowered to scream lies and distortions in town halls.

1000 coordinated and unchallenged radio stations are the main tool used to feed the talking heads. the GOP operatives and politicians know when they repeat the talking points they read that they have been or will be pounded into the earholes of 50 ml in a week. that give the lies certainty. without that radio repetition at their back they would look a lot more like liars and many wouldn't be able to do it. every day the limbaughs lay out a smorgasbord of prechewed talking points like that. this alternate reality comes from years of radio pounding that hte left has largely ignored- considering the time lost on global warming i think that's the biggest political blunder in history.

and there is no bigger PC cop and censor-by-threat than limbaugh and sons, policing the MSM and making sure the celebrity talking heads don't for instance, blame global warming without their GOP friendly producers hearing from thousands of enraged dittohead teabaggers merely because limbaugh and then hannity got a note from the heritage foundation and mentioned the name a few times. dan rather's demise or anthony wiener's could not have been forced by fox or even the MSM. radio was the tool that was going to keep those swiftboatings center and front, with hours of continuous screaming 24/7, demanding the inevitable.

it was limbaugh and sons and their locla wannabes that lied us into iraq, IMO. the talking heads got the message when they would put dissenters on their shows, that these were 'traitors'. anyone like janeane gorafalo, etc who came on daring to suggest it was a lie and mistake were vilified regularly on those 1000 radio stations. that is where the groundwork repetition was done, where no one could get in their face, and while protestors, me among them, were calling it out, the local and national blowhards were distorting and lying to a much larger crow all day instead of a few hours on saturday. that is why protests don't work- they should be going to the true power centers of the GOP- the limbaugh megastations.

there is no organized real time response to RW radio, while they enable where the MSM can call the political center, and create made-to-order pro corporate constituencies. until the left orgs challenge the radio there will be no media or election reform and they will have to work twice as hard for any progress.

time because the call screener fixes that, and paid callers and idiot teabagging dittoheads who believe their crap are the only ones who get through, it must be true.

and that's the way it's been for 20 years and that's why we're in iraq, and why teachers are being laid off, the banks were deregulated, and why the palins and bachmans rule the GOP.

will do and for a reason. I think you're giving far too much power to Talk Radio than they deserve, the MSM could, if
not due to the the T Act of 1996 be equipped to deal with lies and distortions that are derived from the White House itself.

harassed. talk radio does that very well and that my point.

but it is also the only medium capable of the coordinated repetition it usually takes to make lies acceptable. the whole teabagger reality is a talk radio script. they believe what they were screaming in town halls. the kochs didn't have to give them scripts- limbaugh and sons had already pounded it in , and then they could go to fox for some visuals.

you will never convince me that fox TV or any other print or visual medium could sell that bullshit. with print and TV it's too easy to find alts- but in most parts the country RW radio is the only free source of politics and current events while driving or working and that's a lot of captive ears. in that context, music is NOT an alternative.

let me add making single payer 'unnacceptable' for america as another trophy on limbaugh's wall, all because the left ignores it.

all because the left ignores it.

What should "the left" do about it? Please don't point me to the petition drive again. that's useless, a complete waste of time - it will never cause a single hate radio station to close. Neither will sponsor boycotts - been trying that for at least a decade. The Cock brothers don't give a shit about revenues in the middle of Nebraska. The propaganda is literally worth billions.

My advice is to level the fear factor. When they begin to actually fear for their safety, the way Dems and liberals do, things will begin to change.

the most important thing for the left to do is recognize those megastations are the real power centers of the GOP and limbaugh as it's most powerful spokesman.

limbaugh needs to be given full credit for getting us and them into this mess. merely by answering GOP stupidities and lies by invoking limbaugh the left can make the media more self conscious of using the usual talking points. limbaugh represents everything bad about the GOP and the left must stop giving him and the giant pro-corporate talk radio megaphone a free speech free ride.

any response to RW radio in terms of shaming their local sponsors and those local stations, invoking limbaugh as the GOPs leader, getting universities out of RW radio, will effect their credibility and the bottom line of individual stations needing that revenue for overhead. these stations were the main reason for

any public discussion and any increased recognition of talk radio as the GOPs most important weapon will benefit dems in the next elections.

teabaggers are not a fox product, they are talk radio dittoheads first, and fox is a decoy the left continues to go after while the real driver remains invisible.

BTW again, there has never been ANY organized effort to challenge talk radio

Concentrated corporate owned MSM is more lethal than the idiots on radio, but the Act's reversal would
impact them as well.

:shrug:

it would be..but, if enough people can push their legislators in each state..all politics is local, then
we have a chance. I do think these types of movements do not run on one item alone, the average American
is watching the rich get richer while they are being told you don't count. You don't deserve health care,
a pension, nor a union, you're a piece of shit. I do hope American's can be motivated, if not for themselves
do it for the sake of their children.

We need to try, look at Vermont, local state politics is accomplishing some very good things. No
reason to believe we can't do more.

it will be sold on 1000 radio stations as an attack on free speech and the blue dogs in red (radio ) states will head for the hills.

on single payer. They love a salacious fight, they do not care about the content of the fight, only the surface
brawl. They rarely do an expose on what it means to have single payer and the cost goes down, for everyone. Look
carefully who they will interview and who they will not. Then they switch to their own commentators..like David Gergen, who consistently
tows the corporate hawk line. Unfortunately, he has credibility with Americans because he rarely faces a challenge, he's "just weighing in".

They continually give labels to ideas ( right wing or left wing which is dumb) instead of asking pertinent questions about the policy..based on its merits. The MSM does not do the job of journalism as it should be. This is not to say they were always fantastic prior to the Act being passed, the TV land news guys, but it is beyond pathetic today.



I hear what you're saying, I think we differ in degrees of power and influence. I thank you for the respectful conversation.

madison ave would die for a buzz machine that could do what only talk radio can.

that is what made single payer unacceptable and too hard a fight for dems before they even started. public option was defeated by talk radio, the same way kerry became a flip flopper, and anita hill became a liar, the same way the lies that got us into iraq were made acceptable by guys like gergen to repeat.

guys like gergen know their boundaries and the harassment they'll get if they get out of the box and most of it will be initiated at the talk radio level- all limbaugh has to do is quote him and rant for 5 minutes for a few days. on teh other hand he's read the republican talking points and knows he'lll get points for repeating them and knows despite their falseness 50 million will have heard them repeated at least a few times.

reason single payer was defeated, not at all. I do believe lobby money and the WH will be front and center
for the reasons.

and talk radio is the main force preventing election and lobbying reform- whenever the dems try the GOP holds togethtter and gets enough blue dogs to obstruct- radio is the most important tool intimidating and enforcing party loyalty and getting the blue dogs on board.

and those politicians can't take money without being able to point to a 'constituency' that wants them to work for that money.

and there is no better tool for creating made-to-order pro-corporate constituencies than talk radio. they have been doing it for 20 years, some to beat single payer that take years and involve all sorts of distortions and lies of the canadian and other foreign systems, or constituencies that can be created in days.

Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging. Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media. With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is compromised.

Ultimately, FAIR believes that structural reform is needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting, and promote strong, non-profit alternative sources of information.

Check out these links for more of FAIR's analysis of the media business:

•Corporate Ownership
•Advertiser Influence
•Official Agendas
•Telecommunications Policy
•The PR Industry
•Pressure Groups
•The Narrow Range of Debate
•Censorship
•Sensationalism

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=101

the ownership is republican, we have fewer and fewer owners, yes, but there is still some competition and they can't all look like fox. they still have to pretend to be balanced. what they leave out is important. what they don't cover is important. it is important that the management (producers, editors, owners, etc) is republican. yes. but it depends on the talk radio megaphone to enable it to really manage and create.

if 1000 radio stations talked clarence thomas for two weeks instead of anthony wiener, clarence thomas would have been the subject that had to be covered. thomas would be gone instead of wiener. it is that simple.

there is no bigger PC cop and censor-by-threat than team limbaugh. they decide the boundaries to a large extent. the halperins and george wills and all of fox need the limbaugh bandwagon to enable their lies and distortions. without talk radio at their sails they'd be useless.

today hannity was on vacation and fred thompson and his viper wife were co hosting and broadcasting on those 400 stations from the heritage foundation studios (they may not have been supposed to let that slip- that they were actually in house). what percentage of their callers do you think came from right in the same building? why wouldn't they. and broadcasting on the same stations that may broadcast state funded university sports and will be the loudest stations in any national emergency. that the left has NO organized response, doesn't even have a searchable written record of what's being said and how often, is absurd.

the worst part is to hear 95% of political analysis as if talk radio is an after-thought- just a minor part in the propaganda machine- that is truly pitiful.

and real media reform will be impossible as long as the left ignores the radio, because that's where the groundwork is done to fight reform and that's where the distorted hypocritical calls of free speech and censorship are the loudest.

he did despite talk radio's efforts.

with your reasoning, the republican party has something to offer. that bush even got close to the white house was a major talk radio success. when the media finally pointed out some bush crime or fuck up it was the radio that gave the base ten reasons why the liberal media was wrong, (reinforced with paid callers). talk radio is a major propagand asuccess and it works because the left can't stand to listen to it and figure if they can read or watch it it doesn't matter.

palin was chosen to make limbaugh happy. mccain wanted pawlenty or lieberman, probabbly lieberman more, but they couldn't get limbaugh behind mccain with those choices. the convention was going to be a disaster. they waited and waited and the friday before the rep convention they chose palin. and it was announced minutes before limbaugh's show started on friday. limbaugh used the choice to finally support mccain and the convention was a 'rousing success', that htey were even close is a testament to talk radio over common sense.

katey couric should have asked palin who her favorite RW blowhard is, not what she reads. she doesn't have to read. like most of the GOP primary winners in state and national races thewinners are the ones that appeal to the talk radio teabagger/dittohead base, the ones that can channel the think tank radio talking points the best.

funny thing, the republicans call the RW radio monopoly an example of market forces at work, demonstrating america is a center right country. so in a country that obama won very well, 95% of political talk radio is RW.

A sad situation, surely.

* on edit for spelling.

Big Capital has taken over basically bloodlessly, and nearly completely. If they ever have to start slaughtering activists, labor leaders, pesky writers, etc. en masse, they will do it without batting an eye. don't forget that they also own the police and courts.