As the capacity to coerce declines, it is natural to turn to control of opinion as the basis … - Noam Chomsky

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The truth is that literature, particularly fiction, is not the pure medium we sometimes assume it to be. Response to it is affected by things other than its own intrinsic quality; by a curiosity or lack of it about the people it deals with, their outlook, their way of life.

Noam Chomsky

As the capacity to coerce declines, it is natural to turn to control of opinion as the basis for authority and domination - a fundamental principle of government already emphasized by David Hume.

Authority, Coerce, Fundamentals, Government, Hume, Principles

Same Author Quotes

We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.

Hero, Ideas, Should, Looking, Heroes

The responsibilities of someone in a more free and open society are, again obviously, greater than those who may pay some cost for honesty and integrity.

Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility, Free, Open, Pay

I mean, it’s true, nobody talks about them, but when you bring it up, the idea that you have to rent yourself to somebody and follow their orders, and that they own and you work there, and you built it but you don’t own it, that’s a highly unnatural notion. You don’t have to study any complicated theories to see that this is an attack on human dignity.

Respect, Work, Mean, Somebody, Nobody, Unnatural

Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a disciplinary technique, and by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the disciplinarian culture. This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy.

School, Thinking, People, Disciplinary, Large

Technology is basically neutral. It's kind of like a hammer. The hammer doesn't care whether you use it to build a house, or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody's skull.

Crush, Technology, Skulls, Build, Basically