Prof. Noam Chomsky: Illegal but Legitimate: a Dubious Doctrine for the Times

I am now 35 years old. I have spent close to half my life in service of the US military and have seen first hand, many things that stand in direct contradiction to what the public were being told and what popular opinion held to be true. I enlisted at 17, in the year 2003, answering the call to defend my homeland and it's people against the overwhelming, direct threat of Middle Eastern Terrorists. Eventually, after 28 months in Afghanistan, in some incredibly dangerous areas, I began to learn that what most people know to be true and the TRUTH were two totally seperate things. That really set me in opposition to many ideas and things that I once believed to exist and began me down a path of real learning and understanding of what my nation's leaders goals were and who and how they benefitted from them. I was still too young and lacked the wisdom to begin to full understand the scope in which certain things are propagated and controlled by our trusted leaders. I just recently have really began to go through all the things that Dr. Chomsky speaks about and have literally spent the last week or so just finding and listening to everything I can get ahold of, craving the knowledge and understanding that this man has on how things really work and who benefits from them. I wish I would have began much earlier, and maybe somehow been able to just be in the presence of such an amazing mind , if only ever for a few brief moments. Sadly, from everything I've seen and experienced, everything that this man has tried to do will die with him, no mantle will be taken up on the level which he carried it, and we are now in the true downward spiral of the US Democratic system and the noose that the elite have will only tighten from here forward. This is a quote from a movie, but it hold more true than I ever wish that it would, I'm loosely paraphrasing, but "when democracy dies, it will be met with thunderous applause". I know that to be true and it saddens me that most people don't even understand what is really going on.

if your interests lie in critical thinking ,finding truth , reality noam chomsky is a necessity, truely brilliant thinker, cleverly systematically gets to the core of any issue !!!!

Noam Chomsky, a razor sharp intellect and pulls no punches. Listening to his talks are a great joy. Thank you Mr Chomsky.

Noam is 92 years old in 2021. I am worried about who will pick up the mantle when this great man can no longer continue his informative effort.

Have you ever heard anyone with better control of the language? I just love the way this man speaks. Nothing like a dose of Chomsky to spur some thought.

A great teacher, intelligent analyst and a man who is attributes is anchored on truth and justice. Professor Naom has contributed immensely to humanity throughout his career by spreading knowledge, enlightening the world on various topics ranging from history, politics, diplomacy, security and economy. He's left an indelible prints on the sand of time.

I guess if you write the law as you go along, then you'll always be right, even if it's really wrong.

thanks for uploading

Thank you🙏 I will watch this in full later

To supplement your point I'd add that regarding the 'continuum of views' and 'consensus' you may see a discussion on, say, the Vietnam War where a right-wing intellectual favours the use of napalm and the left-winger favours conventional bombing, use of napalm is going too far - and they have heated debates about this. So this becomes the discussion. The idea that they shouldn't invade Vietnam at all never even comes up. Both intellectuals essentially agree.

It is interesting the wide hiatus between what we hear through politicians and corporate media and what we hear through studied research and factual information.

awesome. back!

Outstanding

@applaya lol...indeed...but his allure is caused not only by him reading an extraordinary amount, but also being able to instantly recall basically anything from that work of literature

Spectacular...

If you are here, let me mention Vijay Prashad's book Washington Bullets. Vijay also cherished Edward Said and his work is amply represented here on Youtube. Washington Bullets is available as an ebook.

I am not sure how many times I have listened to this lecture, but I gain more appreciation of the points made each time I do. Thank you, University of Edinburgh for hosting the garden Noam Chomsky, and thank you Prof. Chomsky for doing all of this. Despite receiving some financial renumeration for your work, I believe you have much more positive effect on the world economy than the magnitude of what is received on your banking end.

@compassionrepublican I find it hard to believe that you watched the video and found it boring. His voice maybe, but the content is fascinating. To discover as an American just how thoroughly our society has internalized certain assumptions: aggression is never justified (unless we do it), while other countries maintain the capacity to act in their own interests at our whim, and if we decide they can't be trusted anymore we can preemptively perform non-aggressive invasion and occupation.

good call, i'll will do both.

Hes a great speaker