Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Capitalism vs. Democracy, Prosperity, Ecology

New World Notes #480, 27:52 (May 16)
Broadcast quality MP3 (38 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Noam Chomsky

Nuclear weapons and climate change pose existential threats to life on earth. Democratic institutions would be able and inclined to deal with these threats. But since the 1970s, capitalism has succeeded in undermining democracy and democratic institutions, both in Europe and the U.S.  Thus we have a "perfect storm" of crises.

By undermining democracy, capitalists have also greatly increased their own wealth and reduced the prosperity of the 99%.

So argues Noam Chomsky, in this portion of his briliant and lucid recent talk in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The week's program features 13 minutes of Chomsky plus a related article, "We've Let Capitalism Kill the Planet," by Christian Sorensen. With brief introductions and commentary by KD and a song by Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Noam Chomsky spoke  on April 24 in response to questions posed by Amy Goodman. Chuck Rosina, recorded the entire talk live. (Thanks again.) His complete recording is available on radio4all.net.

"We've Let Capitalism Kill the Planet"--here lightly edited for radio by me--originally appeared on Counterpunch.org, March 28, 2017.



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