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Necessary Illusions-gctid35734

Started by Dukuzumurenyi PhD, Jul 27, 2009, 05:08 PM

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Jul 27, 2009, 05:08 PM
Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies is a 1989 book by US academic Noam Chomsky concerning political power using propaganda to distort and distract from major issues to maintain confusion and complicity, preventing real democracy from becoming effective. Like many of the titles by Chomsky, such as Pirates and Emperors the themes come from such titles as St. Augustine's City of God and Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann, the title of this book borrows a phrase from an earlier political commentary; in this case, Chomsky quotes from the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr.
Nearly the entire first half of the book is based on Chomsky's five 1988 Massey Lectures on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Radio from November 1988 and extends his propaganda model to a variety of new situations. The remaining appendices address criticisms of the work and provide additional detail.
As a genre of political thought, parallels exist between Niebuhr's "necessary illusions" and the "noble lies" of Leo Strauss, "public relations" of Edward Bernays and "myth making" of Niccolò Machiavelli. Likewise, Chomsky's analyses in Necessary Illusions represent a refocus on the use of these patterns of power, which he implies to underscore the failure of populations - particularly in a representative democracy - to learn from history in this regard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessary_Illusions
                            Attached files  17100703-Chomsky-N-Necessary-Illusions-1989.pdf (4.2 MB)

"The history of Kmt will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until Kmtyw historians connect it with the history of Egypt [...] The Kmtyw historian who evades the problem of Egypt is neither modest or objective, nor unruffled, he is ignorant, cowardly, and neurotic." [Mhenga Cheikh Anta Diop]


 


"Every form of true education trains the student in self-reliance." [Mhenga John Henrik Clarke Jr.]


 


"A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson." [Mhenga John Henrik Clarke Jr.]


 


"The events which transpired five thounited snakesnd years ago; Five years ago or five minutes ago, have determined what will happen five minutes from now; five years From now or five thounited snakesnd years from now. All history is a current event." [Mhenga John Henrik Clarke Jr.]


 


"Yes, I'm an extremist. The black race... is in extremely bad condition. You show me a black man who isn't an extremist and I'll show you one who needs psychiatric attention!" [Mhenga Malcolm X]


 


"People involved in a revolution don't become part of the system; they destroy the system... The Negro revolution is no revolution because it condemns the system and then asks the system it has condemned to accept them..." [Mhenga Malcolm X]


 


"When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire . . . or preserve his freedom." [Mhenga Malcolm X]


 


"I for one believe , 'lif you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes , ' produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action." [Mhenga Malcolm X]

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