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Noam Chomsky: Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy - YouTube
Channel: The Nation
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- Take a look at recent history
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since the second World War.
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Something really remarkable has happened.
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First, human intelligence created
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two huge sledge hammers capable
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of terminating our existence
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or at least organized existence.
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Both from the second World War.
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One of them's familiar.
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- A scientific thunderbolt gives
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a preview of its destructive force.
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One of Japan's arsenal cities was selected
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as the first to feel the weight
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of atomic power.
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- It was immediately obvious
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on August 6, 1945,
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a day that I remember very well.
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It was obvious that soon technology would
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develop to the point where it would
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lead to terminal disaster.
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The scientists certainly understood this.
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In 1947,
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the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
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inaugurated its famous doomsday clock.
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How close is the minute hand to midnight?
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And environmental disaster which wasn't
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thought about much in 1945,
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but it turns out we now understand
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that at the end of the second World War
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the world also entered into a new
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geological epoch.
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It's called the anthropocene,
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the epoch in which humans have
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a severe, in fact, maybe disastrous impact
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on the environment.
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There was a sharp spike in such activities
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and disaster after 1945.
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So, geologists pretty much even formally
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date the origin of the
anthropocene to about
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the same time as the nuclear age.
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Observing that the
Bulletin analysts in 2015
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mentioned both
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and moved the clock to
three minutes to midnight,
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the closest it had been since 1984.
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Immediately after the Trump election,
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late January this year,
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the clock was moved again to two
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and a half minutes to midnight.
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Closest it's been since '53.
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So, there's the two existential threats
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that we've created.
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In the case of nuclear war,
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maybe wipe us out.
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In case of environmental catastrophe,
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severe impact.
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Then a third thing happened.
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Beginning around the '70s,
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human intelligence dedicated itself
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to eliminating,
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or at least weakening,
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the main barrier against
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the threats.
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It's called neoliberalism.
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If you ask yourself,
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it was a transition at that period
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from the period of what some people call
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regimented capitalism, '50s and '60s,
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the great growth period,
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egalitarian growth.
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A lot of advances
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and social justice and so on.
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That changed in the '70s
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with the onset of the neoliberal era
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that we've been living in since.
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- We deregulated the airlines,
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we deregulated the trucking industry,
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we deregulated financial institutions,
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we decontrolled oil
and natural gas prices,
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and we negotiated lower trade barriers
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throughout the world
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to get rid of needless
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and burdensome federal regulations
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which benefit nobody
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and which harm all of us.
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- And if you ask yourself
what this era is,
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it's crucial principle is undermining
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mechanisms of social solidarity
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and mutual support
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and popular engagement
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in determining policy.
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It's not called that.
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What it's called is freedom.
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- I'm not in favor of fairness.
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I'm in favor of freedom.
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And freedom is not fairness.
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Fairness means somebody
has to decide what's fair.
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- But freedom means subordination
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to the decisions of concentrated,
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unaccountable, private power.
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That's what it means.
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The institutions of governance
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or other kinds of association
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that could allow people to participate
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in decision making.
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Those are systematically weakened.
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Margaret Thatcher said it rather nicely
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in her aphorism about there is no society
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only individuals.
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She was actually, unconsciously no doubt,
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paraphrasing Marx who in his condemnation
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of the repression in France
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said the repression is turning society
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into a sack of potatoes.
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That just individuals amorphous mass
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can't act together.
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That was a condemnation.
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For Thatcher, it's an ideal.
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And that's neoliberalism.
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We destroy or at least undermine
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the governing mechanisms in which people,
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at least in principle,
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can participate to the extent
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the society's democratic.
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So, we can then undermine unions
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other forms of association,
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leave a sack of potatoes,
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and meanwhile transfer decisions
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to unaccountable private power
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all in the rhetoric of freedom.
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Well, what does that do?
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The one barrier to the threat
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of destruction is an engaged public,
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an informed, engaged
public acting together
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to develop means to confront the threat
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and respond to it.
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And that's systematically weakened
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for people to become more passive
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and apathetic
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and not disturb things too much.
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And that's what the
neoliberal programs do.
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So, put it all together
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and what do you have?
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A perfect storm.
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This is all very simple.
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It's all in front of your eyes.
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All you have to do is look.
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Takes no profound intelligence,
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takes no special insight.
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Just look at what's in front of your eyes.
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It's right there.
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In fact, I think a lot of people see it.
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