Noam Chomsky blasts Obama: He has no moral center

[Douglas Carpenter]

183. but we don't live in a world without power hierarchies and we do not know if such a world is possible

But we do know that not only the human condition but the entire biosphere is a place where the strong dominate the weak. And authority - even the most enlightened authority - is ultimately rooted in the ability to inflict or at least credibly threaten violence. Or as the great Russian Anarchist Peter Kropotkin put it, "wherever there is authority there is no freedom." Professor Chomsky embraces the anarchist philosophy which declares that authority and its power hierarchies can be eliminated. He points to certain examples most notably the Spanish Social Revolution of 1936. While others of the left claim that experiment in anarchy failed miserably Chomsky claims and puts forward a strong case that it worked quite will. But whatever is true - it like every single other attempt at building an authority-less society collapsed relatively quickly and is no longer around. Is it possible that such an order might work in the future? Anything is possible. But it sure the hell is not the alternative we are facing in the United States of America in of 2013 where right-wing economic and foreign policy ideology now dominate both parties - but one party to the levels of the crackpot extremism and the other to a level at least a little bit living in the world of reality. We simply do not have a choice between a cooperative commonwealth and capitalist exploitation. We have ONLY a choice between two reactionary perspectives - but one significantly less dangerous than the other. Those are the only choices that are on current offer at this time.