Imagining a New Social Order: Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin in Conversation

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/42641-imagining-a-new-social-order-noam-chomsky-and-robert-pollin-in-conversation
Date Written:  2017-11-19
Publisher:  Truthout
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21778

Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin discuss how the left can save the US from neoliberal excesses.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Polychroniou: The blueprint for a progressive US that the two of you have sketched out requires that a certain course of political action is carried out ... which includes educating the masses in getting from here to there. How is this to be done, especially given not only the peculiarities of American political culture, but also the balkanization of progressive and left forces in the country?

Chomsky: The answer is both easy and hard. Easy to formulate (and familiar), and hard to execute (also familiar). The answer is education, organization [and] activism as appropriate to circumstances. Not easy, but often successful, and there's no reason why it cannot be now. Popular engagement, though scattered, is at quite a high level, as is enthusiasm and concern. There are also important elements of unity, like the Left Forum, novel and promising. And the movements we've already mentioned. Significant efforts are underway, such as those alluded to briefly [before], and there's no reason why they cannot be extended. While the left is famous for constant splits and internal disputes, I don't think that's more so now than in the past. And the general mood, particularly among young people, seems to me conducive to quite positive changes.