Contents

Introduction

“Noam WHO?”

Why haven’t you heard of “the most important intellectual alive”?

Chomsky’s two careers

The File on Chomsky: A Biographical Sketch

Growing up during the Depression

His uncle’s Kiosk in New York

College drop out

On a kibbutz in Israel

Speaking out against Vietnam

The Shoulders of Giants: Antecedents to the Thinking of Chomsky

Plato

Rene Descartes

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Karl Marx

George Orwell

The anarchist tradition

Zellig Harris

A note to the Reader

LINGUISTICS

What is Linguistics?

The evolution of Linguistics

Linguistics as a science

Universal generative grammar

Evidence that generative grammar is innate

Is grammar learnable?

The infinite variety of language

What is the nature of the original state?

Chomsky on Skinner and Behaviorism

Noam Chomsky and the MEDIA: Can You Believe What You See and Hear?

Necessary Illusions: The science of propaganda

What is the function of the Media in a Democratic Society?

Engineering consent

Walter Lippman

Reinhold Neibuhr

Recap of Chomsky’s view

The Targets of Propaganda

The Threat of Democracy

How does “ownership determine content”?—The Propaganda Model

Filter #1: MONEY—“The Media of Influence”

Filter #2: ADVERTISING—How does that distort the news?

Filter #3: “EXPERTS”Who do they work for...and why do the same ones keep popping up?

Filter #4: “FLAK”— Who writes all those Letters-to-the-Editor?

Filter #5: ANTI-COMMUNISM—creating a Bogeyman

Concision: How “sound bites” are used to kill opposing viewpoints

Keeping the herd in line

Don’t take Chomsky’s word for it—check it out yourself!

What are they hiding?

Chomsky on POLITICS

Chomsky’s first hand experience with The Censor

Why doesn’t the news compute?

The myth of the Classless Society

The myth of the Free Market system

Welfare for the Rich—How it works

Uncle Newt’s double standard

“National Defense is a sick joke.”

Colonialism, then and now

Foreign Policy: Friendly Dictators and Client States

The real New World Order—how it started

The real objective of the New World Order

“Corporate interests”/“American interests”

History—one or two things they forgot to tell you

Coming home to roost

Chomsky on Fighting Back: What Can One Person Do?

Taking Responsibility—What can one person do?

Intellectual self-defense

Knowledge and information

INTERVIEW with Noam Chomsky

INDEX

Abbreviations of sources of quotes.

AC -- After the Cataclysm, Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, 1979, South End Press.

APNM -- American Power and the New Mandarins, Noam Chomsky, 1967, 1969, Pantheon.

ATS -- Aspects of The Theory of Syntax, Noam Chomsky, 1965, MIT press.

CR -- The Chomsky Reader, ed. Richard Peck, 1987, Pantheon Books.

DD -- Deterring Democracy, Noam Chomsky, 1991, 1992, Hill and Wang.

ESP -- Equality and Social Policy, Noam Chomsky, 1978, University of Illinois Press.

FRS -- For Reasons of State, Noam Chomsky, 1970, 1971, 1972, Pantheon.

FT -- The Fateful Triangle, Noam Chomsky, 1983, South End Press.

INT -- Interview with Noam Chomsky, Sept. 14, 1993, David Cogswell

L&P -- Language and Politics, by Noam Chomsky, 1988, Black Rose Books.

MC -- Manufacturing Consent, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, 1988, Pantheon Books.

MCF -- Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. A film by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick in association with the Canadian Film...

Nl -- Necessary Illusions, Noam Chomsky, 1989, South End Press.

NCZM -- Noam Chomsky writing in Z Magazine.

PE -- Pirates and Emperors, Noam Chomsky, 1986, Amana Books.

PD -- “The Panama Deception,” a film by the Empowerment Project, 1992.

RC -- Rethinking Camelot, Noam Chomsky, 1993, South End Press.

TNCW -- Towards a New Cold War, Essays on the current crisis and how we got there, Noam Chomsky, 1982, Pantheon.

TT -- Turning the Tide, Noam Chomsky, 1985, South End Press.

WC -- The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, 1979, South End Press.

WUS -- What Uncle Sam Really Wants, Noam Chomsky, 1986-92, Odonian Press.

Y5 -- Year 501, Noam Chomsky, 1993, South End Press.

Editor’s note: Actual quotes by Chomsky are denoted with quotation marks and abbreviations indicating the source of the quote.