Fwd: My virus(!) and McChesney on Chomsky
Jon Ford
jonmfordster@hotmail.com
Sun, 18 Nov 2001 18:25:27 -0800
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<DIV></DIV>>From: "Don Laird" <DLAIRD1@AUSTIN.RR.COM>
<DIV></DIV>>To: "Jon Ford" <JONMFORDSTER@HOTMAIL.COM>
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: My virus(!) and McChesney on Chomsky
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 16:43:36 -0600
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<DIV></DIV>>GlobalizationHi Jon,
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<DIV></DIV>>First I want to say that I learned on 11-13 from my server that I had a virus that was spamming. So if you (or anyone else) received an email from me with an attachment, it may have been sent by my virus, W32 Magistr.3921. To get rid of this potentially destructive virus requires an antivirus program updated after September 1. I may have had the virus for a month. I bought and apparently successfully used Norton Antivirus 2002.
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<DIV></DIV>>Below are some selected comments from a lengthy article I found at http://www.globalpolicy.org/globaliz/econ/chmsky99.htm
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<DIV></DIV>>Noam Chomsky and the Struggle Against Neoliberalism
<DIV></DIV>>By Robert W McChesney
<DIV></DIV>>Monthly Review
<DIV></DIV>>April 1, 1999
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<DIV></DIV>> Neoliberalism is the defining political economic paradigm of our time -
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<DIV></DIV>> Aside from some academics and members of the business community, the term neoliberalism is largely unknown and unused by the public at large, especially in the United States.
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<DIV></DIV>> Neoliberals like Friedman had no qualms over the military overthrow of Chile's democratically elected Allende government in 1973, because Allende was interfering with business control of Chilean society.
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<DIV></DIV>> Neoliberal democracy therefore has an important and necessary byproduct - a depoliticized citizenry marked by apathy and cynicism.
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<DIV></DIV>> In sum, neoliberalism is the immediate and foremost enemy of genuine participatory democracy, not just in the United States but across the planet, and will be for the foreseeable future. It is fitting that Noam Chomsky is the leading intellectual figure in the world today in the battle for democracy and against neoliberalism. In the 1960s, Chomsky was a prominent U.S. critic of the Vietnam war and, more broadly, became perhaps the most trenchant analyst of the ways U.S. foreign policy undermines democracy, quashes human rights, and promotes the interests of the wealthy few. In the 1970s, Chomsky (along with his co-author Edward S. Herman) began researching the ways the U.S. news media serve elite interests and undermine the capacity of the citizenry to actually rule their lives in a democratic fashion. Their 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, remains the starting point for any serious inquiry into news media performance.
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<DIV></DIV>> I doubt any author, aside from perhaps George Orwell, has approached Chomsky in systematically skewering the hypocrisy of rulers and ideologues in both Communist and capitalist societies as they claim that theirs is the only form of true democracy available to humanity.
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<DIV></DIV>> In the 1990s, all these strands of Chomsky's political work - from anti-imperialism and critical media analysis to writings on democracy and the labor movement - have come together, culminating in work like Profit Over People, about democracy and the neoliberal threat.
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<DIV></DIV>> The mythology of the free market also submits that governments are inefficient institutions that should be limited, so as not to hurt the magic of the natural laissez faire market. In fact, as Chomsky emphasizes, governments are central to the modern capitalist system.
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<DIV></DIV>> Nowhere is the process more apparent than in the creation of the World Trade Organization in the early 1990s and, now, in the secret deliberations on behalf of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI).
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<DIV></DIV>> Indeed, it is the inability to have honest and candid discussions and debates about neoliberalism in the United States and elsewhere that is one of its most striking features. Chomsky's critique of the neoliberal order is effectively off-limits to mainstream analysis despite its empirical strength and because of its commitment to democratic values.
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<DIV></DIV>> In fact, Chomsky's greatest contribution may well be his insistence upon the fundamental democratic inclinations of the world's peoples, and the revolutionary potential implicit in those impulses. The best evidence of this possibility is the extent to which corporate forces go to prevent genuine political democracy from being established.
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<DIV></DIV>> Neoliberalism's loudest message is that there is no alternative to the status quo, and that humanity has reached its highest level.
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<DIV></DIV>> As Chomsky points out, organized political activism is responsible for the degree of democracy we have today, for universal adult suffrage, for women's rights, for trade unions, for civil rights, for the freedoms we do enjoy. Robert W. McChesney teaches communication at the University of Illinois. His newest book is Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999). This article first appeared as the introduction to Noam Chomsky's Profit Over People (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999).
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<DIV></DIV>> More Information on Economic Liberalization and Integration
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