'The Dominion And The Intellectuals'

Antasofia: Last year we worked on a seminar, organised by the students, called Genealogy of Dominion. We studied MaxStirner, Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, Etienne De la Boetie and Hannah Arendt. I worked on Max Stirner's TheEgo and Its Own. He believes language has a disciplinary effect that through the words goes straight toideology. So for Stirner, you have to free yourself from this kind of language and have a personal rebellion,not a revolution. This is something different from your language conception that is free and creative. I wantto know what you think about that.

Noam Chomsky: I think Stirner is confusing language with the use of language. I mean it is like asking whether you have tofree yourself from a hammer because a hammer can be used by a torturer. It is true that a hammer can be usedby a torturer but the hammer can be used also to build houses. The use of a hammer is something we must payattention to, but the language can be used to repress, can be used to liberate, can be used to divert. It islike saying you have to liberate yourself from hands because they can be used to repress people but it's s nothand's fault.

Antasofia: It is very hard to live in the U.S. for a left activist. I don't t feel very comfortable in your country.What is the condition of activism in the U.S.?

Noam Chomsky: The situation is really complicated. There are no labor-based groups and there is no labor based politicalparty. People are completely disconnected and this lack of connection is a real problem. Don't forget that theMarxist movements were never very strong in U.S. in all of its history: there were ambiences in whichindependent Marxists gained influence but this didn't happen in the main part of the country. 

Also rememberthat the U.S. government is an extreme radical and nationalist group with some similarities to EuropeanFascism. It has proclaimed imperial ambitions, relying on its overwhelming predominance in the militarydimension, and is unusual in its dedication to the needs of narrow sectors of wealth and private power. Peoplein the United States work really hard, much harder than any other advanced industrial society, and this causesa lot of stress. People are always concerned about their work and they live in fear. 

Although there is a lotof crime in the United States, it is approximately the same as comparable societies, but fear of crime is farhigher. In many ways, this is the most frightened nation in the world! Moreover, the level of activism dependsupon which part of the United States you are thinking of: United States is a very complicated country withmany different tendencies. 

For example, last week I was in the largest university in the country, which is notexactly the liberal center of the nation: Texas. In Houston and Austin, where I was, there were all kinds ofcommunity and campus-based activities. At the University of Texas there were thousands of people involved inprotest after Congress authorized the use of force, and the student government passed a strong anti-warresolution. 

One finds similar things all over the country, at a level that is quite without precedent. Therehas never been anything like such protest before a war is officially launched, and war-peace issues are onlyone element of the broad popular movements that are taking shape, committed to a wide range of issues andconcerns.

Antasofia: I was impressed by the fact that everywhere, in shops, in bars, at the movies, there is the same posterabout 9-11 with the sentence, "We'll never forget." In Europe, maybe we would have written somethinglike, "We'll always remember." It seems that there is a taste for revenge...

Noam Chomsky: You have all sorts of different reactions, I mean, right after September 11, it was reported that a bigproportion, or a high majority, of the population wanted the attack against Afghanistan. It's a normalfeeling; now the same majority would pursue diplomatic solution.

Antasofia: In a text of yours you say that the world is ruled by a "virtual senate". Can you tell mesomething more about this?

Noam Chomsky: The term is not mine. I am borrowing it from the professional literature on international economics. The"virtual senate" consists of investors and lenders. They can effectively decide social and economicpolicy by capital flight, attacks on currency that undermine the economy, and other means that have beenprovided by the neoliberal framework of the past 30 years. 

You can see it in Brazil right now. The"virtual senate" wants assurances that the neoliberal policies of the Cardoso government, from whichforeign investors and domestic elites greatly benefit, will not be changed. As soon as internationalinvestors, lenders, banks, the IMF, domestic wealth, and so on, recognized that Lula might win the elections,they reacted with attacks on the currency, capital flight, and other means to place the country in astranglehold and prevent the will of the majority from being implemented. 

When they regained confidence thatLula would not be able to depart fundamentally from the international neoliberal regime, they relaxed andwelcomed him. As they put it, Lula reassured people that he would keep Brazil safe. That specific use oflanguage has: two faces: if he keeps it safe for the financial investors, will he keep it safe for theBrazilian? Governments face what economists call a "dual constituency": voters, and the virtualsenate. Lula promised his country that he will keep Brazil safe for the population, but the IMF wants to keepit safe for the its own constituency: the virtual senate. 

They will act so that the money comes right afterthe elections and only if Lula keeps up with creditors. This is the effect of financial liberalization andother measures that have established the virtual senate as the dominant force in determining social andeconomic policy within a country. It means the population doesn't have control of the decisions taken by hisown country. One consequence of liberalization of capital is rather clear: it undercuts democracy.

Antasofia: This is a big win for the left in the world; Brazil is such a big country.....

Noam Chomsky: I have a lot of respect for Lula but the problem is that he has very little space to maneuver. Actually hehas some choices: he can become some sort of figurehead in the hand of IMF or he can do some good for Brazil.If he doesn't get killed first...

Antasofia: We hope not...

Noam Chomsky: Lula could direct resources for internal development but unregulated capital flow can be used veryeffectively to undermine attempts by individual governments to introduce progressive measures. Any countrytrying to stimulate its economy or increase its health spending is likely to find this deviant behaviorinstantly punished by a flight of capital.

Antasofia: It seems to me, with a certain degree of difference, that the concept of a virtual senate is similar toNegri's and Hardt's concept of Empire.

Noam Chomsky: Empire, yes, but I have to say I found it hard to read. I understood only parts, and what Iunderstood seemed to me pretty well known and expressible much more simply. However, maybe I missed somethingimportant.

Antasofia: Yes, and the book arrives to the same conclusion as yours but through a more complicated, less readableway...

Noam Chomsky: If people get something out of it, it' s OK! What I understand seems to be pretty simple, and this isnot a criticism. I don't see any need to say in a complicated way what you can say in an easier way. You canmake things look complicated, that's part of the game that intellectuals play; things must look complicated.You might not be conscious about that, but it's a way of gaining prestige, power and influence.

Antasofia: Do you look at Foucault's work in this perspective?

Noam Chomsky: Foucault is an interesting case because I'm sure he honestly wants to undermine power but I think withhis writings he reinforced it. The only way to understand Foucault is if you are a graduate student or you areattending a university and have been trained in this particular style of discourse. That's a way ofguaranteeing -- it might not be his purpose -- but that's a way of guaranteeing that intellectuals will havepower, prestige and influence. 

If something can be said simply, say it simply, so that the carpenter next doorcan understand you. Anything that is at all well understood about human affairs is pretty simple. I findFoucault really interesting but I remain skeptical of his mode of expression. I find that I have to decodehim, and after I have decoded him maybe I'm missing something. I don't get the significance of what I am leftwith. I have never effectively understood what he was talking about. 

I mean, when I try to take the big wordshe uses and put them into words that I can understand and use, it is difficult for me to accomplish this task.It all strikes me as overly convoluted and very abstract. But what happens when you try to skip down to realcases? The trouble with Foucault and with this certain kind of theory arises when it tries to come down toearth. Really, nobody was able to explain to me the importance of his work...
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Antasofia: Do you think intellectuals should free themselves from theory, from visions, such as Zapatistas, andMarcos?

Noam Chomsky: Marcos's own thoughts were interesting, but there is no such think as an "absence of theory."I mean, you always have a commitment to some set of beliefs, goals and visions and so on, or to some kind ofanalyses of society. That is true whether you are expressing your views on torture, or freedom of speech, orin fact any issue beyond the most utterly superficial.

Antasofia: I was thinking of your text, Goals and Visions, and I think that sometimes it is much moreimportant to concentrate on goals and forget the visions!

Noam Chomsky: You don't have to forget them; there is a balance. You have to make your own choices; I meana closefriend of mine may make very different choices than me. For example Michael Albert thinks that it is reallyimportant to spell out the visions. My feeling is that we don't know how to do that, so this kind of work isless important than that on goals. These are speculations about reasonable priorities, doubtless different fordifferent people, as they should be. There is no general right or wrong about it.

Antasofia: When you talk about the role of intellectuals you say that the first duty is to concentrate on your owncountry. Could you explain this assertion?

Noam Chomsky: One of the most elementary moral truisms is that you are responsible for the anticipated consequences ofyour own actions. It is fine to talk about the crimes of Genghis Khan, but there isn't much that you can doabout them. If Soviet intellectuals chose to devote their energies to crimes of the US, which they could donothing about, that is their business. 

We honor those who recognized that the first duty is to concentrate onyour own country. And it is interesting that no one ever asks for an explanation, because in the case ofofficial enemies, truisms are indeed truisms. It is when truisms are applied to ourselves that they becomecontentious, or even outrageous. But they remain truisms. In fact, the truisms hold far more for us than theydid for Soviet dissidents, for the simple reason that we are in free societies, do not face repression, andcan have a substantial influence on government policy. So if we adopt truisms, that is where we will focusmost of our energy and commitment. 

The explanation is even more obvious than in the case of official enemies.Naturally, truisms are hated when applied to oneself. You can see it dramatically in the case of terrorism. Infact one of the reasons why I am considered public enemy number one among a large sector of intellectuals inthe US is that I mention that the U.S. is one of the major terrorist states in the world and this assertionthough plainly true, is unacceptable for many intellectuals, including left-liberal intellectuals, because ifwe faced such truths we could do something about the terrorist acts for which we are responsible, acceptingelementary moral responsibilities instead of lauding ourselves for denouncing the crimes of official enemies,about which we can often do very little. 

Elementary honesty is often uncomfortable, in personal life as well,and there are people who make great efforts to evade it. For intellectuals, throughout history, it has oftencome close to being their vocation. Intellectuals are commonly integrated into dominant institutions. Theirprivilege and prestige derives from adapting to the interests of power concentrations, often taking a criticallook but in very limited ways. 

For example, one may criticize the war in Vietnam as a "mistake" thatbegan with "benign intentions." But it goes too far to say that the war is not "a mistake"but was "fundamentally wrong and immoral," the position of about 70 percent of the public by thelate 1960s, persisting until today, but of only a margin of intellectuals. The same is true of terrorism. Inacceptable discourse, as can easily be demonstrated, the term is used to refer to terrorist acts that theycarry out against us, not those that we carry out against them. That is probably close to a historicaluniversal. And there are innumerable other examples.

Text courtesy, Znet