Chomsky's interesting analysis of the origins and prospects of the US attack on Yugoslavia

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2.y), April 22, 1999

Answers

You have to scroll to about mid-page and click on 'Chomsky Interview'.

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2.y), April 22, 1999.

chomsky will set you free

-- zoobie (zoob@aol.com), April 22, 1999.

Blue,

Thanks for the web site. Very depressing business. Looks like it will have to play itself out without any serious involvement of the common US citizen. As Pogo said, we have met the enemy and it is us.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), April 22, 1999.

Blue -

Thanks for the link. Chomsky is a very interesting read, as usual. Here's a beauty:

But in the Balkans it's different, it can affect European interests and therefore US interests, so it becomes a crisis, any kind of turbulence. Then you want to quiet it down. Well, how do you do that? The US flatly refuses to allow the institutions of international order to be involved, so no UN, and that's pretty explicit. So they have to turn to NATO. Well, NATO the US dominates, so that's acceptable and then you turn to force. Why force? Well, several reasons, and here I think Clinton, Blair, and others have been pretty honest about it. The point that they reiterate over and over is that it is necessary to establish the credibility of NATO. Now all we have to do is translate from Newspeak. What does credibility of NATO mean? Are they concerned with the credibility of Italy or the credibility of Belgium? Obviously not. They are concerned with the credibility of the United States. Now what does the credibility of the United States mean? Well, you can ask any Mafia don, and he'll explain it. So, suppose some Mafia don is running some area in Chicago, what does he mean by credibility? He means that you have got to show people that they better be obedient or else. That's credibility.

Shades of...

VITO CORLEONE

I understand. You found paradise in America, had a good trade, made a good living. The police protected you; and there were courts of law. And you didn't need a friend of me. But uh, now you come to me and you say -- "Don Corleone give me justice." -- But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you uh ask me to do murder, for money.

BONASERA

I ask you for justice.

VITO CORLEONE

That is not justice; your daughter is still alive.

BONASERA

Then they can suffer then, as she suffers. (pause) How much shall I pay you?

VITO CORLEONE (stands, turning his back toward Bonasera)

Bonasera... Bonasera... What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And that by chance if an honest man such as yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you.

BONASERA

Be my friend -- (pause. After bowing and the Don shrugs) -- Godfather? (He kisses the Godfather's hand)

VITO CORLEONE

Good. (pause) Some day, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day -- accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day.

BONASERA (as he leaves the room)

Grazie, Godfather.

VITO CORLEONE

Prego. (then, to Tom Hagen, after Bonasera leaves the room) Ah, give this to ah, Clemenza. I want reliable people; people that aren't gonna be carried away. I'm mean, we're not murderers, despite of what this undertaker says.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), April 22, 1999.

HA HA Mac, that's fantastic. Should be forwarded to Chomsky himself! I used to know him, maybe I'll send it to him. HA ! Shows there's life in this forum yet !!

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2.y), April 22, 1999.

Link

-- links (r@u.s), April 22, 1999.

Chomsky speaks with such clarity. Coincidentally, today finds me surfing the internet on the subject of General Semantics,....Chomsky finds a home there. I like this quote from the first interview:

"NC: You have to keep in mind what these people are hearing. The public is getting its marching orders from Washington. And these orders are to disregard all other atrocities, even ones much worse than Kosovo, especially in places where the US is involved. Focus your attention only on this disaster and pretend to yourself that the crisis is all about one evil man who is carrying out genocide. This is what we are being told by our media day and night. It's effective. Most people accept the marching orders. Then they say we've got to do something, like send ground troops."

This link below from www.parascope.com....article on Yugoslavia, and first hand report from a political cartoonist living there. Repor t from Inside Yugoslavia

--The map is not the territory

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 22, 1999.

I thought I closed that tag...adjusting definition of the word "thought". LOL

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 22, 1999.

The thought occurs to me that it would be instructive/informative to paraphrase Chomsky,...to use this paragraph to talk about what Washington/The media appears to be doing with the Littleton, Colorado high school shootings. Try this on for size....(bold emphasis=my changes/additions)

"NC: You have to keep in mind what these people are hearing. The public is getting its marching orders from Washington/The Media. And these orders are to disregard all other atrocities, even ones much worse than Littleton, Colorado, especially in places where the US is involved. Focus your attention only on this disaster and pretend to yourself that the crisis is all about two evil teens who are carrying out this massacre. This is what we are being told by our media day and night. It's effective. Most people accept the marching orders. Then they say we've got to do something, like banning trench coats, banning all guns, fingerprinting all citizens,...etc., name your reactive solution."

I rememeber clearly lessons in elementary school on advertising/propaganda techniques/semantic connotation,..I remember it from high school. Is this kind of analysis not being taught anywhere except in college and graduate school any more? The calendar pages fall off faster than I imagine,...I appear to be an anachronism.

She upon the hill, hanging on to a separate peace, peering down the rabbit hole, calling,..."Alice???? You there?"

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 22, 1999.

Another choice quotation from the second of the Chomsky interviews:

But in the Balkans it's different, it can affect European interests and therefore US interests, so it becomes a crisis, any kind of turbulence. Then you want to quiet it down. Well, how do you do that? The US flatly refuses to allow the institutions of international order to be involved, so no UN, and that's pretty explicit. So they have to turn to NATO. Well, NATO the US dominates, so that's acceptable and then you turn to force. Why force? Well, several reasons, and here I think Clinton, Blair, and others have been pretty honest about it. The point that they reiterate over and over is that it is necessary to establish the credibility of NATO. Now all we have to do is translate from Newspeak. What does credibility of NATO mean? Are they concerned with the credibility of Italy or the credibility of Belgium? Obviously not. They are concerned with the credibility of the United States. Now what does the credibility of the United States mean? Well, you can ask any Mafia don, and he'll explain it. So, suppose some Mafia don is running some area in Chicago, what does he mean by credibility? He means that you have got to show people that they better be obedient or else. That's credibility.

Sounds a bit like Waco and Ruby Ridge,..but I could be hallucinating.

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 22, 1999.

Then they say we've got to do something, like banning trench coats,

You thought that was a joke HA, I heard today that Colorado public schools have now banned the wearing of trenchcoats.

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2.y), April 22, 1999.

Reality is constructed in heads. It takes more than changes in the punctuation of the text to change the intention behind a story.

A trench coat can be seen as part of the punctuation of the text. Communities need to work at writing a different story so that the coats (or what ever) do not become more than just another garment.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), April 22, 1999.

I didn't think it was a joke when I typed it...I knew that would be one of the reactions, as if changing that would take the deaths away. We lost my 12-year old nephew to a tragic car accident one year ago...I know how wishful thinking works. I didn't mean to give another impression,...The oddest things become "reality".

Credo quia absurdum est. (I believe it because it is absurd)

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), April 23, 1999.

A Chicago Suburban H.S. banned black clothing as a result of Columbine.

Thanks for the link to the Chomsky, I can't wait to read it ;-)

-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), April 23, 1999.

Banned black clothing awright! Now they can go after all those ninja suited super-goon feds: batf, fbi, swat, etc. Oops, don't wanna get in trouble with my mouth, maybe that is now the imperial color, for the Imperial Storm Troopers only...

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2.y), April 23, 1999.

Now, an interview with Chomsky on Y2K would be worthwhile reading.

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), April 23, 1999.