Wrecked World

A speech by Noam Chomsky takes a long look at "really existing capitalist democracy" (RECD). It's a system that pays lip service to genuine democracy but in fact the vast majority have no influence on policy. This shows up in polls where public opinion diverges from policies that benefit the elite.

Chomsky sees grim prospects for the future under RECD.  He highlights the environment and the possibility of nuclear war.  There's a skewed rationality that seeks to exploit every last source of fossil fuel.  He happens to mention Ecuador as a place that sought to stop that exploitation, but which now seems to have changed course.

Chomsky also makes clear the role of the press in keeping us in the dark.  For example, Iran's nuclear program is constantly touted as a threat, but there's no mention of a cancelled international conference that would have addressed efforts to create a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East.  The conference was cancelled by the Obama Administration after Iran agreed to attend.

And yet, Chomsky ends optimistically:

The general picture is pretty grim, I think. But there are shafts of light. As always through history, there are two trajectories. One leads towards oppression and destruction. The other leads towards freedom and justice. And as always - to adapt Martin Luther King's famous phrase - there are ways to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice and freedom - and by now even towards survival.