On War and Activism - Noam Chomsky interviewed by Charngchi Way
December 9, 2005
Q: The international organizations have been in place since WWII to resolve conflicts and prevent the use of force, but they have no enforcement power.
A: It's not that they have no enforcement power. They have enforcement power when the US authorizes it. So they have enforcement power against the weak, and against US enemies, otherwise, no. That's a little over exaggeration, but it's pretty much the story. I mean the UN has problems, and the problems are right here. Same is true of all this ludicrous talk about UN reform. Yeah, UN could use some reform, but you know, so could Washington, so could most US corporations. But the main problem that's required for the UN reform is for the US to stop disrupting UN operations. That's the main problem.
Actually we are seeing it right this minute in Montreal, doesn't happen to be the UN at this moment, but the international conference on global warming. The US is simply not permitting it to proceed, unilaterally. That's the problem of international organizations. If the most powerful state blocks their operations, yeah, it's a problem.
Q: The international organizations have been in place since WWII to resolve conflicts and prevent the use of force, but they have no enforcement power.
A: It's not that they have no enforcement power. They have enforcement power when the US authorizes it. So they have enforcement power against the weak, and against US enemies, otherwise, no. That's a little over exaggeration, but it's pretty much the story. I mean the UN has problems, and the problems are right here. Same is true of all this ludicrous talk about UN reform. Yeah, UN could use some reform, but you know, so could Washington, so could most US corporations. But the main problem that's required for the UN reform is for the US to stop disrupting UN operations. That's the main problem.
Actually we are seeing it right this minute in Montreal, doesn't happen to be the UN at this moment, but the international conference on global warming. The US is simply not permitting it to proceed, unilaterally. That's the problem of international organizations. If the most powerful state blocks their operations, yeah, it's a problem.
posted by Alice at
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
2 Comments:
Hi, thanks for quoting part of the interview I did with Prof. Chomsky.
What did you think about the entire interview? I am just learning the ropes and I would love to have more feedback.
Take care.
Charngchi Way
ccway77@yahoo.com
Hi Charngchi,
I really appreciate you asking my opinion. May I ask where you got the opportunity to interview Professor Chomsky? That’s quite an exciting chance to get, and I wondered if he has any special reasons for granting interviews. He seems like he is so precise in his words that a person might be very nervous to ask him questions. Especially so after seeing what happened between him and The Guardian newspaper recently.
I especially liked this question to him, going right for his opinions on the causes of war, a very deep question.
“Are there deeper causes for war, or has it always been an interplay of power interests?”
Then following that with the Orwell question: Orwell said "Wars are mostly internal." Do you agree with that and can you elaborate on it? - was fantastic! I work in a library and know of a an online group calling themselves the Ministry of Re-shelving, they ask for people to take the book 1984 whenever they see it in a store, or library to move it from the Fiction to the Non-Fiction section and take a photo of it for their website. So the Orwell question was good I thought.
Another great question: But, does it ever reach a point where the elites have to worry about their own survival? This question shows precise and logical thinking on your part also.
Being a self-proclaimed Individualist Anarchist, the question about how an Anarchist society would handle external threats - I’d say that to me, and my way of viewing my life through Anarchism, no place is external, really, so that was a little off to my way of thinking. However, I really liked the couple of words you used to describe Anarchism with, “…a society based on cooperation and free association…”
I would guess that you know how most people generally think of chaos and Molotov cocktails when they hear the ‘dreaded A-word’…so I appreciated that description to help rewire public thinking about the meaning of the word.
I have to say that I am normally reading Chomsky interviews with his answers in my focus more than the questions, and now that you’ve asked the interviews read a lot better to me… so thanks again for bringing me this opportunity.
Again, the next question about the Aristotle quote is great! Sounds to me, like he didn’t mind your questions, and even liked answering them, sometimes he seems a little miffed or something at the questions people ask of him and before he answers he might make a clarification to their question, but not with you so far.
That’s cool that you are involved in Taoist/Confucianism…I collect and study metaphysics. I have a home library with more than 1,000 books on the general subject of spirituality, consciousness and channeled material specifically. I have a great old book on Confucius and lots of eastern books. Most all of Alan Watts books, just a lot of different books.
With this question: Why do you think that the privileged people miss the obvious truths? , it surprised me that he didn’t call you on generalizing with it…must be a belief based on experience for him that most if not all privileged people miss obvious truths, I guess.
The Richard Feynman questions also were good because I liked how that brought out his opinions about Sciences and how they operate.
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So, those are my opinions about your interview with the Professor. I would really love to know the answers to my questions about how this interview opportunity came about for you that I asked at the start if you have the time.
Thank you,
Shelly (Citizen Alice)
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