Eventually, Noam does bring up democracy in his speaking duties with the dean. But it is only to show how lost it is. America has long been a two-party representative thing, but Chomsky doubts it's even a lesser-of-two evils thing anymore, having been totally undermined by the Republicans. He seriously confronts the notion that we currently operate under a real democracy. The dean wonders why we are seeing an upsurge in "anti-science" and "anti-intellectualism" these days. Chomsky blames Republicanism:
Well, there's a number of reasons. First of all, notice that it's party based. It's the Republican Party almost, almost totally for the last couple of decades. The Republican Party has just departed from normal parliamentary politics. It's not a normal political party anymore. Not [just] my opinion. Standard political science discussion. People like Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute describe the Republican Party in the last couple of decades as a radical insurgency that has abandoned parliamentary politics, and it's dedicated to running, trying to maintain power. However, it's done as a minority party by legislation, by other means. This is a real serious threat to the existence of a functioning democracy. Democracy's a pretty fragile plant and it barely functions anyway. You start tearing it out by the roots. It's not going to last long.
How would you tweak this? You get the feeling that Noam's about to go the hemlock route. But probably I'm just projecting.
Lori, means well, and closes with a rhetorical question for Noam: "Finally, do we have a future as a country, as a species, and as a planet?"
And that's a wrap.
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