Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Noam Chomsky and the Magna Carta
After reading Noam Chomsky's article, please write a response letter to him. Whether you agree or disagree, I want you to form your own thesis and respond directly to Mr. Chomsky. Imitate his writing style, and post your response here. If you have trouble posting your response, then email me your response over the weekend. It is due on Monday. Have fun!
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20 comments:
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Dear Mr. Chomsky
I have read your article “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta” and it can be argued this is the key situation reason most of the significant political events occurrence. In your point of view people are and were blind and in our blindness these huge corporations used the system in their advantage. Before Magna Carta there was kings, queens and nobles that had the power over masses which they maintained by fear and oppression. Frankly it didn’t took too long to people to request more democratic lives. Taking advantage of this starting from Magna Carta a middle, bourgeoisie group started rose and begun to steal power from the aristocracy; in order to accomplish this they used the masses’ s hatred to the aristocracy.
Slowly in centuries people asked more rights and so on revolutions broke out. Eventually kings got overthrowned and these wealthy corporations took the land and power. However they still feared masses because they still had the power to stop them from getting stronger. To stop any possibilities they attempted to distract us from those kind of topics, unfortunately it seems they succeeded in this nowadays. They kept inculcating people and misleading them to the notion that could help them disguise their true desire of power. Basically they achieved this by using massive propaganda like TV, news, magazines, new fashions and new technology. Furthermore the ones that are aware of this situation is most likely to get ostracized or isolated from the society where these people could actually spread their knowledge about these private huge companies.
Thank you for your time for considering my opinion as well.
Kerem Derinkok
Dear Mr. Chomsky,
It was a great pleasure reading your article “Destroying the Commons: How the Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta” which addresses that the democracy in the ideal world we think we live in is threatened by an unseen power. I am glad I had the opportunity to look at this situation which we both agree on from your perspective.
It is true that the world we live in and democracy is under siege from an unseen power, which we don’t even know about, and us, the intellectuals, should look to raise awareness in every possible way. However, it is very difficult to raise awareness while we are threatened by not only one, but thousands of different authorities. Would we really be able to achieve our goals, or would our existence and lives be threatened again? The authorities in our world, men with great power, are willing to do everything possible to lower our voices, and continue shepherding us. I believe the answer to the question “Are we as powerful as the authorities to go against them?” is more of a controversy then what you have stated in your article because the real problem isn’t that we can’t raise awareness, it’s that we can’t place the courage to go against the powerful men inside people’s hearts.
The path to the ideal world we dream of will be even more of a struggle if we don’t have the majority behind our backs. I believe we should be more concerned with getting people to struggle with us, not to agree with us.
Best regards,
Emir Belgil
Very good letters but no counter arguments :(
Good Day Mr. Chomsky Sir,
I have been taking a look at your attention catching work and I have stumbled on to a controversial topic. As I went deeper and deeper into your paper, I have realized that the argument you are attempting on creating, might be invalid. You have argued that un-seen eminent powers have had a bad influence on our so called “democratic” leaders. I tend to disagree. Every force/power, need an energy source. Our presidents, VP’s, PM’s are all great powers in the world. But what is force without energy? What can a boxer or a tank do without its power supply? In this context, the forces are our great leaders and the energy being pumped into them are supplied by these un-seen eminent people. Capitalism is something that has emerged out of the blue and is now one of the most important things that run our planet. These so called “unseen people” are capitalism. They are the wind of our sail boat. Now ask your self, what would a sail boat do without wind? The same logic applies to politics. Every president needs someone to back them up. Someone powerful and resourceful. You have to take into consideration that the world is not the same as it used to be. The time has changed and so have the needs of the people. The once called “perfect” dictatorship of royals is now frowned upon. The once created “perfect” democracy can’t be the same as the time and demands have changed. Everyone needs to adapt to the new world order. Not seek an old one.
Thank you for your time,
Baran.
Mr. Chomsky,
I am really pleased that we both share the same idea which you addressed magnificently in your article: “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta”. It is seen that corporations are diminishing the effects of Magna Carta by destroying the true sprit of democracy.
Today’s circumstances cannot be judged with yesterday’s circumstances. In the early human life there was no government, no corporation and no kings and merchants. Everything was public with no owner. Basically humans started the civilization journey with the true meaning of democracy. Yet we failed as we went up the stairs. Human greed blinded our humanity. When “majestic kings” got the power to rule, they tired everything to sustain their power. Even today corporations are doing their mysterious work also the government as well. Well if they work for the benefit of people what do they have to hide?
These stairs that our mankind have been climbing is not only vague but also idiotic. Are we really going further to achieve our life purposes which is money or make as much as benefit for our society. Pasteur didn’t find rabies vaccine to make profit and to swim in luxury. No, he found it for the benefit of the people. As long as this greed stays with humans, we will no longer be able to have democracy. All these steps towards the true democracy start with one step: controlling human greed.
Mr. Chomsky as always you wrote a striking article about the unseen truth of our society. Miserably not every section of the community is intellectual. It is seen by the educated ones with the true idea of democracy that some actions must be done. I really appreciate your acts and your ideas, which inspire and awaken many educated fellows.
Regards,
Gensay SAZCI
Dear Mr Chomsky
I have read your article “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta’’, and it can be argued that huge efforts had been devoted since the last 150 years by the mass powers to inculcate the new spirit of the age. It can be argued that the minority of people, not the nobles, but the Bourgeoisie, had been encouraged to be atomized. According to Edward Bernays, a respected Wilson-Roosevelt-Kennedy progressive, and a journalist, Walter Lippmann, the public must be ‘put in place’ , however, the masses were too ‘stupid and ignorant’ to contrive. Magna Carta was a turning point, which overthrew the nobility. Using Magna Carta, a middle class, the Bourgeoisie was formed, which exasperated the aristocracy because distaste of the nobility was used. Eventually, ‘justice’ was used on both sides. As George Bush said ‘‘Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done’’.
I thank you for your consideration.
With best Regards,
Selin Keçeli
December 16, 2013 at 23:23
Dear Mr.Chomsky,
I have read your article “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta”, where you want to expose the real situation of our “democratic governments”. As you said in the article, the current democracy around the world is under attack by unkown and invisible powers or corporations. Unfortunately the corporations that controlling the “democracy” ensuring their power from the people like us.
I appreciate your effort in the article. You tried to explain the real face of the world to us but however,some people won’t understand your point or they won’t support your idea, and they will continue to being inculcating by their governments. And this is the main problem in democracy,people think that the governments are the only power in the power. Before Magna Carta there were kings and there were dictatorship. But now governments are pretending like they are using democracy but actually not.The democracy we have is shaping to dictatorship.And that’s beacuse of people’s blind perception in democracy. They are not thinking the other powers that controls demcracy. By being blind we help to corporations to maintain their powers.
Thank you for your time.
Kagan Berge
Dear Mr. Chomsky,
At the time when freedom is being blatantly mistaken as an equivalent to free trade, it’s difficult to make comments on what’s left of our democracy. I’d like to begin by applauding you for showing such intellectuality- though your thoughts have astounded me without doubt, I’d appreciate if you could take your time to consider my opinion on your article “How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta” as well.
It is the bitter truth that the democracy we have today is coming close to an end as the prominent corporations seek to privatize what they don’t own. In the ambitions of taking control over the essential commodities, no one dares to evoke the question, “Why must we play God?”. By coming against the privatization of commodities, it is the least of my intentions to advocate complete free use of commons, as that would ultimately lead to the crisis known as the tragedy of the commons. However, contrary to the argument of Garrett Hardin stating “freedom in commons brings ruin to us all”, complete privatization is also not the correct way to treat the commons. Not only is it difficult to determine who has possession over the lakes or the fish, but also who gets a say in what should be privatized. The great authorities that remain above us in the pyramid of the decision makers of our society, what evidence is there to ensure their incentives to gain the maximum profit possible from any action they take won’t distort and overcome their morals to provide the fundamental commodities to the ones in need? If it seems beneficial to do so, its hardly a rare sight to find the large corporations in power utterly disregard the prevailing economic issues, and attempt to threaten to deprive the masses of essential goods that in reality none of the parties own; the Bolivian water privatization incident, for instance.
For the aforementioned reasons, there is no doubt that the freedom of today is in the risk of diminishing before our eyes and being profoundly limited and manipulated in favor of those who claim to be in charge. I strongly believe that the ideal society in which the rights to the usage of commodities are equally distributed amongst the people as a whole rather than an inadequate one those in power would essentially benefit from, is not impossible the achieve provided that the humanity is willing to make rational decisions regarding the allocation of the indispensable resources.
Yours truly,
Naz Birdal
Dear Mr. Chomsky
I have read your article “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta”, where you address the grave possibility that democracy around the world is under siege from power that is unseen and deceptive, which also means that today democracy is being destroyed. I think that most of the presidents of democratic countries are becoming more and more like dictators and all of them want to gain more power. Most of the governments think that most of its population is stupid and ignorant, and gives the people illusions of freedom. By increasing the number of products and making people buy more products, governments close people’s eyes and do not show them real problems or real news. Many democratic governments show people how dictators are harmful and give people a lot of negative information about dictators to close people’s eyes, so that they will not recognize their president is becoming another type of dictator; they brainwash people by using massive propaganda, such as TV, news, magazines and new technology. I am sure you know about event that happened in Libya and that its population overthrew its dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, with the help of the rich countries. When I made a research about Libya when Qaddafi was ruling it I was shocked. I found out that there was free education, Married couples could get around $80000 from its government and the petrol price was $0.14. I am not for dictatorship, but do you think that normal person would overthrow him? I think that rich countries paid some people to start conflicts and overthrow Qaddafi; the powerful presidents want us to think that dictators harm people but many people do not realize that those presidents are becoming another type of dictators.
Thank you for you time.
Best regards,
Jasur Umarov.
Dear Noam Chomsky,
Your devastating article about Magna Carta explains lot about todays governmental activities and how governments sustain their power over the country. It is clearly seen that privatization of land is destroying the idea of democracy; the system is becoming more like totalitarizm.
Magna Carta was a great opportunity for people to see what is a better way of living: democracy. But back then, kings and queens or whoever was having the control over the land, were manipulating the people and maintaining the control over the civilization. Because back then, the land the communities own was their only way to survive.
System is pretty much the same nowadays. It was the land back then which was needed, now it is wants. Government- corporations- are creating products which are not needed but they are forming the idea of buying products. Even tough you do not need the product, they convince you to buy it by using advertisements.
Things have not changed over the thousand years. We still need the land to outlast. Nowadays, the land is being controlled by the corporations but is being masked by the system called democracy. It is our responsibility to raise awareness. But will this affect the society? I do not think so since people are so blind to see what is actually happening in the government.
Mr. Chomsky, I totally agree with you and I think that ignorant people should be informed. People should think of what they are doing and they should give rational decisions because every product they buy is encouraging corporations to increase their chances of being dictators and giving us less chance to defend our freedom.
Faithfully yours,
Onur Ozturk
EDITED
Mr. Chomsky,
It was a great pleasure reading your article “Destroying the Commons: How the Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta” which addresses that democracy in the ideal world we think we live in is threatened by an unseen power. I am glad I had the opportunity to look at this situation, which we both agree on, from your perspective.
It is preposterous to disagree with the fact that the world we live in and the concept of democracy is under siege from an unseen, deceptive power, which we do not even know about, and we, the intellectuals, should look to raise awareness in every possible way. However, it is very difficult to raise awareness while we are threatened by not only one, but thousands of different authorities. Would we really be able to achieve our goals, or would our existence and lives be threatened again? The authorities in our world, men with immense power, are willing to do everything possible to lower our voices, and continue shepherding us. I believe the answer to the question “Are we as powerful as the authorities to go against them?” is more of a controversy then what you have stated in your article because the real botheration is not that we cannot raise awareness, it is that we cannot place the courage to go against the powerful men inside people’s hearts. I believe courage is what we initially should be seeking for. Only then, we can be able to stand against this tyrannical destruction of human rights.
The path to the ideal world we dream of will be even more of a struggle if we don’t have the majority behind our backs. I believe getting people to struggle with us, rather than share their thoughts with us, should be more of a concern for us.
Best regards,
Emir Belgil
re-editted
Mr. Chomsky,
I am really pleased that we both share the same idea which you addressed magnificently in your article: “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta”. It is uncomplicated to understand that corporations are diminishing the effects of Magna Carta by destroying the true sprit of democracy.
Today’s circumstances cannot be judged against yesterday’s circumstances. In early human society there was no government, no corporation and no kings and merchants. Everything was public with no owner. Humans started the civilization journey with the true meaning of democracy. It is disappointing to see how quickly and easily humans failed on the road to civilization. Human greed blinded our humanity. When “majestic kings” got the power to rule, they tired everything to sustain their power. Even today corporations are doing their mysterious work also the government as well. Government, though its power, should always consider the way they got elected by the free spirit of people. Although there are some not democratic countries, they are changed by the name of democracy with the help of United States of America; but is USA truly, 100%, democratic that it finds the right to intervene other “democratic countries”? Answer lies upon your eyes. Well if they work for the benefit of people what do they have to hide from public where they use all the “top secret” or “classified” labels?
These stairs that mankind has been struggling with climbing are not only vague but also idiotic. Are we really going further to achieve our life purposes which is money or make as much as benefit for our society? After a great time humans managed to find the decisive element in life which was money, which should make every individual feel sick because that is not only wrong but also pathetic. Through the massive data of history vast amount of clever people tried to show this idea to public and as usual human greed failed humanity. Pasteur didn’t find rabies vaccine to make profit and to swim in luxury. No, he found it for the benefit of the people. As long as this greed stays with humans, we will no longer be able to have democracy. All these steps towards the true democracy start with one step: controlling human greed; which will terminally determine human faith.
Mr. Chomsky as always you wrote a striking article about the unseen truth of our society. Miserably not every section of the community is intellectual. It is seen by the educated ones with the true idea of democracy that some actions must be done. I really appreciate your acts and your ideas, which inspire and awaken many educated fellows, and tried to address them in a way which is effortless to read.
I present my dearest salutations,
Gensay SAZCI
EDITTED!
Dear Mr.Chomsky,
I am really blessed that we both share the same idea which you addressed in your article: “Destroying the commons: How Magna Carta Became a Minor Carta”. It is uncomplicated to understand the current democracy around the world is under siege by unkown and invisible powers or corporations. Unfortunately,still this problem can’t be seen by some uneducated part. The corporations that controlling the “democracy” ensuring their power from the people like them,and they are constructing the %80 of human population.
I appreciate your effort in the article. You tried to explain the real face of the world to us but however,some people won’t understand your point or they won’t support your idea, and they will continue to being inculcating by their governments. And this is the main problem in democracy,people think that the governments are the only power in the power. Before Magna Carta there were kings and there were dictatorship. But now governments are pretending like they are using democracy but actually not.The democracy we have is shaping to dictatorship.And that’s beacuse of people’s blind perception in democracy. They are not thinking the other powers that controls democracy. By being blind we help to corporations to maintain their powers.
The way we are processing don’t have a luminious finish.How far can huge corporations can keep going to exploit our democracy.The democracy which we have it today, is supervising by another power. The main idea of Magna Carta was to destroy the kingdom and construct a modern and free world.But it can be observed that the democracy that we acquire is not the same thing with past time.As the corporations becoming preeminent power we are losing our democracy.
Thank you for your time. I am really pleased for giving my idea to you.
Kağan Berge
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