Dear Prof. Chomsky,
I am a Japanese citizen
In the US the major airport is at the name of John F. Kennedy, the US President during the escalation in Vietnam and the Cuban Crysis
In Japan many companies are named "Showa " after Emperor Showa who was in charge while the Japanese troops invaded most parts of South East Asia
The Catholic Church has always fought against the scandals of children rape by simply negate them or try to whitewash them as much as possible
Very few people, if any, are asking to change the name of the US airport named after JFK, to criticize a company named "Showa" or very few Catholic are actively criticizing the members of the Church who protected the child abusers
The truth that I have never read in your books is that we, with the exception of very few people, are passive sheep, soaking up lies and not considered fit to hear the truth, probably rightly, since we are also hypocrites who 'support' causes or oppressed minorities only on condition that our support costs us nothing and does not trammel our comfortable and prosperous lives.
If I may, I would like to add that you too have probably be helped in your battles by the fact that you are a leading intellectual and world famous.
Were you not, you possibly would not have gone so far in your battles against injustice.
But there is space for only one Noam Chomsky in the world.
The real heroes are the victims, or the slight minority of the people whom are not famous but give their work and life for the others.
I am involved in activism and working for others, but I do much less than what I can do, therefore I am guilty as well.
We all are, with very few exceptions.
This is what you should write in your books sometimes, you did not write this as it it is obvious, or maybe as you did not want to upset your own readers.
I still respect you a lot, you have inspired me to do what I do for the others now, but I would respect you more if you had gone all the way telling the people the truth, that at the end they are the responsible.
The reason why the majority of the people usually do not steal, kill or rape is not because they are "good", it is because they can get what they want with less risk and trouble doing it.
People are even fascinated by murders and killings, this is why they take pleasure in looking at action movies where the main attraction is seeing other human beings suffering.
During wars, when there is less risk to be in trouble or get caught, rapes, killings and looting become the norm; and even people who do not participate in this, they do not condemn when their comrades do it.
It is very rare that one soldier condemns his comrades for whatever crime
Even worse indeed, many times the people support those very part of the system which are the ones they are themselves being screwed up by.
Take the military, people spend trillions in the military and such money go into the pockets of the big military establishment.
The US layman has nothing to gain from the war in Afghanistan, and everything to lose in giving money in the pit of the US military budget.
Still many people are fascinated by the rhetoric of "support our troops", same in Japan, same in the US.
Global stupidity anyone?
How can ignorance be an excuse in the era of internet?
Because this is where the knack of the problem is: people believe they are good, loyal to their country and to their Gods, and that the blame of everything wrong must be placed on others (the enemy, the commies, the fascists, the "other side"..)
But human beings are not usually good, most of the good things they do they would do it in order to receive something back, even if just some bit of love or gratitude.
We do not just get interested in the pain and suffering of other people they are not connected with.
And this is the knack of the problem that you would have written in your books in order to make the full picture clear
What needs to be said to them is that everyone of us deserves our part of blame and in order o do so it is necessary to show that wrong things happen because of the disinterest or the stupidity of the people and not (mainly) because of the immoral decisions of this or that leader.
If this is not said clearly, people will receive the wrong impression that leaders are the problems, while the problems stands on both leaders and the people.
This is not said clearly in your books, I fear because you do not want to upset your readers?
Many people are simply cowards, they do not want to get in trouble telling the truth to their colleagues, families and friends.
Therefore, they just stick to the official version of the propaganda and do not investigate further.
Were not you a very famous intellectual, maybe you too would have some more concerns to tell others about facts that may put you in trouble in your work and in your family life.
The reason why the things have gone better (for humankind, and much worse for the millions of other animal species on planet Earth many of them close to extinction due to human activity) is not as there has been any cultural revolution or moral progress in the last 1000 years, you just need to open your TV to see that such progress is not there
The reason why things have gone better is that stealing and killing other people has become too risky and dangerous, wars even more (especially with the invention of nuclear bombs) while most of the people already have food for them and their families, therefore little incentive to look for wars abroad.
Without the scientific progress of the last 500 years, the Geneva Conventions, the Bill of Rights and the UN Charters are not worth the paper they are written on
This is the truth that sometimes I would have liked to read in your books.
Please, do not please tell me "and you, what have you done to change all this?" as even if I did much, I have no way to prove it to you and in any case my considerations are on a general ground.
The problem lies with the people, not with the institutions
The immorality of the institutions merely reflects the immorality of the vast majority of the people
This is what should be said sometimes in your books and unexpectedly isn`t
Regards,
[my name]
I am a Japanese citizen
In the US the major airport is at the name of John F. Kennedy, the US President during the escalation in Vietnam and the Cuban Crysis
In Japan many companies are named "Showa " after Emperor Showa who was in charge while the Japanese troops invaded most parts of South East Asia
The Catholic Church has always fought against the scandals of children rape by simply negate them or try to whitewash them as much as possible
Very few people, if any, are asking to change the name of the US airport named after JFK, to criticize a company named "Showa" or very few Catholic are actively criticizing the members of the Church who protected the child abusers
The truth that I have never read in your books is that we, with the exception of very few people, are passive sheep, soaking up lies and not considered fit to hear the truth, probably rightly, since we are also hypocrites who 'support' causes or oppressed minorities only on condition that our support costs us nothing and does not trammel our comfortable and prosperous lives.
If I may, I would like to add that you too have probably be helped in your battles by the fact that you are a leading intellectual and world famous.
Were you not, you possibly would not have gone so far in your battles against injustice.
But there is space for only one Noam Chomsky in the world.
The real heroes are the victims, or the slight minority of the people whom are not famous but give their work and life for the others.
I am involved in activism and working for others, but I do much less than what I can do, therefore I am guilty as well.
We all are, with very few exceptions.
This is what you should write in your books sometimes, you did not write this as it it is obvious, or maybe as you did not want to upset your own readers.
I still respect you a lot, you have inspired me to do what I do for the others now, but I would respect you more if you had gone all the way telling the people the truth, that at the end they are the responsible.
The reason why the majority of the people usually do not steal, kill or rape is not because they are "good", it is because they can get what they want with less risk and trouble doing it.
People are even fascinated by murders and killings, this is why they take pleasure in looking at action movies where the main attraction is seeing other human beings suffering.
During wars, when there is less risk to be in trouble or get caught, rapes, killings and looting become the norm; and even people who do not participate in this, they do not condemn when their comrades do it.
It is very rare that one soldier condemns his comrades for whatever crime
Even worse indeed, many times the people support those very part of the system which are the ones they are themselves being screwed up by.
Take the military, people spend trillions in the military and such money go into the pockets of the big military establishment.
The US layman has nothing to gain from the war in Afghanistan, and everything to lose in giving money in the pit of the US military budget.
Still many people are fascinated by the rhetoric of "support our troops", same in Japan, same in the US.
Global stupidity anyone?
How can ignorance be an excuse in the era of internet?
Because this is where the knack of the problem is: people believe they are good, loyal to their country and to their Gods, and that the blame of everything wrong must be placed on others (the enemy, the commies, the fascists, the "other side"..)
But human beings are not usually good, most of the good things they do they would do it in order to receive something back, even if just some bit of love or gratitude.
We do not just get interested in the pain and suffering of other people they are not connected with.
And this is the knack of the problem that you would have written in your books in order to make the full picture clear
What needs to be said to them is that everyone of us deserves our part of blame and in order o do so it is necessary to show that wrong things happen because of the disinterest or the stupidity of the people and not (mainly) because of the immoral decisions of this or that leader.
If this is not said clearly, people will receive the wrong impression that leaders are the problems, while the problems stands on both leaders and the people.
This is not said clearly in your books, I fear because you do not want to upset your readers?
Many people are simply cowards, they do not want to get in trouble telling the truth to their colleagues, families and friends.
Therefore, they just stick to the official version of the propaganda and do not investigate further.
Were not you a very famous intellectual, maybe you too would have some more concerns to tell others about facts that may put you in trouble in your work and in your family life.
The reason why the things have gone better (for humankind, and much worse for the millions of other animal species on planet Earth many of them close to extinction due to human activity) is not as there has been any cultural revolution or moral progress in the last 1000 years, you just need to open your TV to see that such progress is not there
The reason why things have gone better is that stealing and killing other people has become too risky and dangerous, wars even more (especially with the invention of nuclear bombs) while most of the people already have food for them and their families, therefore little incentive to look for wars abroad.
Without the scientific progress of the last 500 years, the Geneva Conventions, the Bill of Rights and the UN Charters are not worth the paper they are written on
This is the truth that sometimes I would have liked to read in your books.
Please, do not please tell me "and you, what have you done to change all this?" as even if I did much, I have no way to prove it to you and in any case my considerations are on a general ground.
The problem lies with the people, not with the institutions
The immorality of the institutions merely reflects the immorality of the vast majority of the people
This is what should be said sometimes in your books and unexpectedly isn`t
Regards,
[my name]
