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Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order QUOTES

Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order QUOTES

1 " In the United States […] the two main business-dominated parties, with the support of the corporate community, have refused to reform laws that make it virtually impossible to create new political parties (that might appeal to non-business interests) and let them be effective. Although there is marked and frequently observed dissatisfaction with the Republicans and Democrats, electoral politics is one area where notions of competitions and free choice have little meaning. In some respects the caliber of debate and choice in neoliberal elections tends to be closer to that of the one-party communist state than that of a genuine democracy. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

2 " Large corporations have resources to influence media and overwhelm the political process, and do so accordingly. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

3 " That is neoliberal democracy in a nutshell: trivial debate over minor issues by parties that basically pursue the same pro-business policies regardless of formal differences and campaign debate. Democracy is permissible as long as the control of business is off-limits to popular deliberation or change; i.e. so long as it isn’t democracy. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

4 " One should attend carefully to the fear and desperation of the powerful. They understand very well the potential reach of the "ultimate weapon," and only hope that those who seek a more free and just world will not gain the same understanding and put it effectively to use. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

5 " Earlier in the twentieth century some critics called fascism “capitalism with the gloves off,” meaning that fascism was pure capitalism without democratic rights and organizations. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

6 " Globalization is the result of powerful governments, especially that of the United States, pushing trade deals and other accords down the throats of the world’s people to make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to dominate the economies of nations around the world without having obligations to the peoples of those nations. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

7 " Neoliberal democracy. Instead of citizens, it produces consumers. Instead of communities, it produces shopping malls. The net result is an atomized society of disengaged individuals who feel demoralized and socially powerless. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

8 " the crisis of democracy” as when normally passive and apathetic populations become organized and seek to enter the political arena to pursue their interests and demands, threatening stability and order. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

9 " The economic consequences of these policies have been the same just about everywhere, and exactly what one would expect: a massive increase in social and economic inequality, a marked increase in severe deprivation for the poorest nations and peoples of the world, a disastrous global environment, an unstable global economy and an unprecedented bonanza for the wealthy. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

10 " Governments are bigger than ever, but under neoliberalism they have far less pretense to being concerned with addressing non-corporate interests. And "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

11 " The intelligent minority are a “specialized class” who are responsible for setting policy and for “the formation of a sound public opinion, "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

12 " the distinguished Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, in his text American Politics, observes that power must remain invisible if it is to be effective: “The architects of power in the United States must create a force that can be felt but not seen. Power remains strong when it remains in the dark; exposed to the sunlight it begins to evaporate. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

13 " The choice is ours, the choice is yours. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

14 " Neoliberalism is the defining political economic paradigm of our time—it refers to the policies and processes whereby a relative handful of private interests are permitted to control as much as possible of social life in order to maximize their personal profit. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

15 " Neoliberalism works best when there is formal electoral democracy, but when the population is diverted from the information, access, and public forums necessary for meaningful participation in decision making. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

16 " Democracy functions insofar as individuals can participate meaningfully in the public arena, meanwhile running their own affairs, individually and collectively, without illegitimate interference by concentrations of power. Functioning democracy presupposes relative equality in access to resources—material, informational, and other—a truism as old as Aristotle. In theory, governments are instituted to serve their “domestic constituencies” and are to be subject to their will. A measure of functioning democracy, then, is the extent to which the theory approximates reality, and the “domestic constituencies” genuinely approximate the population. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

17 " Chomsky’s description of the neoliberal/corporate hold over our economy, polity, journalism, and culture is so powerful and overwhelming that for some readers it can produce a sense of resignation. In our demoralized political times, a few may go a step further and conclude that we are enmeshed in this regressive system because, alas, humanity is simply incapable of creating a more humane, egalitarian, and democratic social order. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

18 " she has a blank sheet to write upon. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

19 " US relations with the World Court and other international institutions have undergone a similar evolution, to which we return. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

20 " The enormous public relations industry, from its Origins early in this Century, has been dedicated to the "control of the public mind" as Business Leaders described the task and they acted on their words, surely one of the central themes of modern history. The fact that the public relations industry has its roots and major centers in the country that is "most free" is exactly which we should expect, with a proper understanding of Humes Maxim. "

― Noam Chomsky , Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order