Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

The Challenge Ahead
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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liberties, an extremely important fact. This tradition is under such severe
attack by the Reaganites that the—hardly radical—American Civil
Liberties Union has felt it necessary to launch a Bill of Rights Campaign
in an effort to maintain the nation’s heritage against the onslaught of
today’s “conservatives,” but it is still vibrant. Furthermore, it will be
defended by powerful groups, for one reason, because they are its major
beneficiaries. Though it has never been a pure capitalist society—nor
has any other, for the simple reason that such a society could not long
survive—the United States approaches this status as closely as any in
the contemporary world. In such a society, everything becomes a
commodity, including freedom: you have about as much as you can
purchase—for many of us, quite a lot, in a relatively wealthy society
such as ours. For a black teenager in the ghetto subjected to police
harassment or sometimes direct state violence, the guarantees of civil
rights often amount to little. However, those who have some degree of
privilege and wealth can act to defend their rights, making use of the
legal mechanisms that exist. The same is true of other rights, such as
freedom of speech and association. These become meaningful to the
extent that one has the resources to exercise them. We can expect these
rights to be defended by people who benefit by them, so that dissidents
also have a space in which to operate that is often lacking elsewhere,
and in much of the world is close to zero.
Furthermore, as noted, the general obedience of the media does not
approach full subservience, much to the distress of “conservatives,” and
there is a tradition of professionalism of reporting that is also lacking in
much of the world. An American journalist is as likely to give an
accurate account of what he or she sees as any in the world, far more
than most; though what they look for, and how they perceive it given a
background of indoctrination, and what the editors will tolerate or select,
are different matters. The very opulence of the society, combined with