[Reader-list] Noam Chomsky interviewed by Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" April 14, 2009

[Venugopalan K M]

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*<http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21162>
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*AMY GOODMAN: *But as you reflect, talking about these huge social
movements, cataclysmic times in the world, your life experience, what gives
you hope?

*NOAM CHOMSKY: *Well, there's both hope and fear. I mean, I'm old enough to
have grown up in the Depression. And some of my memories—I didn't understand
that much at the time—childhood memories, are listening to Hitler's
speeches. I didn't understand them, but I could sense the reaction of my
parents, you know, and had a feeling of fear, you know, a tremendous fear.
In fact, the first article I wrote was in 1939, when I was in fourth grade,
and it was about the expansion of fascism over Europe, a kind of a dark
cloud that may envelop everything. And as I mentioned before, I have some of
those same concerns now.

On the other hand, there's been tremendous progress. The country is far more
civilized than it was, say, forty years ago, thanks to the activism of the
'60s and its aftermath. And some of the most important developments were
after the '60s, like, say, the feminist movement, which has probably had
more of an impact on this society than any other. It's mostly post-'60s. The
solidarity movements, which are unique in the history of imperialism,
there's never been anything like them. That's from the '80s. The global
justice movements, what's called anti-globalization—shouldn't be—that's, you
know, the '90s and this century. These were all very positive developments.

They haven't changed the institutions. In fact, the institutions have
reacted by becoming harsher, not surprisingly. But they've changed the
culture. I mean, take, say, the 2008 election. I mean, I didn't like the
candidates, as I've made clear. On the other hand, forty years ago, or maybe
ten years ago, you couldn't have imagined that the Democratic Party would
have two candidates, an African American and a woman. OK, that's a sign of
the civilizing effect of the activism of the '60s and everything that
followed.
Well, that can be mobilized. In fact, it's already. If you count the number
of activists in the country, it's, I suspect, well beyond the '60s, except
maybe for a very brief moment at the peak of the antiwar movement. OK, that
can be a basis for proceeding onward. So, that's a reason for hope.

-- 
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