Q: What moves a citizen from being a passive onlooker, a spectator, to becoming engaged? Chomsky: Take something recent in our history, the women’s movement. If you had asked my grandmother if she was oppressed, she wouldn’t have understood what you were talking about. If you had asked my mother, she knew she was oppressed and she was resentful, but couldn’t openly question it. She wouldn’t allow my father and me to go into the kitchen because that wasn’t our job; we were supposed to be doing important things like studying, while she did all the work. Now ask my daughters if they’re oppressed; there’s no discussion. They’ll just kick you out of the house. That’s a significant change that’s taken place recently, a dramatic change in consciousness and in social practice. Walk down the halls of MIT today. Forty years ago you would have seen only well-dressed white males who were respectful to their elders, and so on. You walk down the halls today, half the people you see are women, a third are minorities, people are casually dressed. Those are not insignificant changes. And they have occurred throughout the society.
Q: What moves a citizen from being a passive onlooker, a spectator, to becoming engaged? Chomsky: Tak…
Noam Chomsky (born on December 7, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historical essayist, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and an Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 150 books. He has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, and particularly international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. Chomsky has been a writer for Z projects since their earliest inception, and is a tireless supporter of our operations.