March 23, 2017
Starr Forum: Racing to the Precipice: Global Climate, Political Climate
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Noam Chomsky - Changes Within the System
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Well, I think there are good grounds for changing the nature of the political system pretty radically. I mean, a system of organization of production, let's say-- just keeping to that-- which is geared towards profit maximization, not use, is inherently destructive. A system of institutional organization in which the basic functioning institutions are totalitarian, like a business, top-down control.
You fit somewhere in it, take orders from above. Given below at the bottom, you rent yourself. That's inherently, I think, humanly and socially destructive.
So there's plenty of changes that could be made. And we can think about them. And in fact, you can try to build within the existing society pieces of what might be a more democratic and humane future society.
It's even being done. But you can't change the political system radically unless the great mass of the population comes to a recognition that we're in a situation where the changes that have to be made can't be made, and will be resisted within the current system. And we're nowhere near that.
You have to get the great mass of the population to be committed to creating it.
And you can do that incrementally. You have to work within the system that exists. You can do a lot of things within it.
You can have a vision of the future which people can take as a guideline for further action. And maybe, as I mentioned before, you can construct institutions of a future society within this one, like cooperatives, for example, like worker-owned enterprises. If they would extend, they would change the society enormously. And those are things that arise constantly, if you're willing to grasp the opportunity.
A couple of years ago, there was a small plant in the Taunton suburb of Boston, which was quite successful-- a plant making sophisticated parts for aircraft. It wasn't making enough profit for the multinational who owned it to keep it going, so they decided to put it out of business.
The union, progressive union, UE, offered to buy the plant and have it run by the workforce, which probably would have been profitable for the multinational. But for class reasons, they don't like that kind of thing. If there had been popular support, they could have won.
There wasn't any, so they didn't win. Things like that are happening all the time. These could lead to major changes in the society.
Are they incremental? In a sense, but their long-term consequences could be very, very great.
Esterline to shut down Haskon aerospace unit (2010)
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Workers invoke eminent domain to keep plant open (2010)
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