Noam Chomsky

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow a very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people a sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of debate." Noam Chomsky

"The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions." Noam Chomsky

"Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way." Noam Chomsky

"Debt is a social and ideological construct, not a simple economic fact." Noam Chomsky

"If workers are more insecure, that's very 'healthy' for the society, because if workers are insecure, they won't ask for wages, they won't go on strike, they won't call for benefits; they'll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that's optimal for corporations' economic health." Noam Chomsky

"Language etches the grooves through which your thoughts must flow." Noam Chomsky

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it’s unlikely you will step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance you may contribute to making a better world. The choice is yours." Noam Chomsky

"Democratic societies can't force people. Therefore they have to control what they think." Noam Chomsky

"If you are not offending people who ought to be offended, you're doing something wrong." Noam Chomsky

"The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself." Noam Chomsky

"The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective." Noam Chomsky

"Education is a system of imposed ignorance." Noam Chomsky

"All public resources go to the rich. The poor, if they can survive in the labor market, fine. Otherwise, they die. That's economics in a nutshell." Noam Chomsky

"Anyone who studies declassified documents soon becomes aware that government secrecy is largely an effort to protect policy makers from scrutiny by citizens, not to protect the country from enemies." Noam Chomsky