The Assaults On Democratic Rights And Personal Freedoms
“A device that is regularly exploited is the fear of imminent destruction by an enemy of boundless evil. Such
perceptionis are deeply rooted in (Amercan) popular culture, coupled with faith in nobility of purpose – the latter, as close to a universal as history provides. … Whatever the roots of these cultural features be, they can easily be manipulated by cynical leaders, often in ways that are hard to believe.” - Noam Chomsky in ‘Failed States’ – The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy’
In his latest book ‘Failed States’, Professor Noam Chomsky, the distinguished academic and writer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was of course referring to the United States. But his insightful analysis is true not only of US but of many other countries as well. Among the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and one of the most important, Chomsky says, is to look honestly in the mirror. If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of ‘failed states’ right at home. That recognition of reality should be deeply troubling to those who care about their countries and future generations. Often we find ourselves unable to differentiate between what we preach and what we practice. Take terrorism for example. We wax eloquent about the terrorism of our opponents, about their terror against us while our terror against them does not exist. We claim that our assaults on the democratic rights of our opponents are entirely appropriate. These are the double standards that many nations, big and small, employ.
