There is no plausible theory under which the record of the Pentagon Papers can be interpreted as relating to the national defense.
Noam ChomskyRead
Corporations are totalitarian institutions. Board of directors at the top of managers give orders, everyone follows orders..... At the very bottom of command, if you are lucky you can rent yourself to it and get a job , and if you are sufficiently propagandized you may even buy some of the junk they produce and so on.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the hierarchical and authoritarian structure of corporations, suggesting they operate like totalitarian regimes.
Noam Chomsky's quote highlights the authoritarian nature of corporations, depicting them as totalitarian institutions that impose a rigid hierarchy. He points out that at the top are the decision-makers, while the majority of workers have little autonomy, merely following orders without significant input. The implication is that individuals at the bottom of the corporate structure are often left with limited choices and may even become complicit in supporting the very system that restricts them.
Themes
CorporationsTotalitarianHierarchyPowerControlPropaganda
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on corporate ethics, this quote can illustrate the dangers of unchecked corporate power.
More from Noam Chomsky
All quotes →The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
Noam ChomskyRead
If you're teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.
Noam ChomskyRead
There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, 'That person I see is a savage monster;' instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do.
Noam ChomskyRead
The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it's hardly a traditional political party anymore.
Noam ChomskyRead
There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information - the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.
Noam ChomskyRead
Similar quotes
Every thought is a cause & every condition is an effect. Change your thoughts & you change your destiny.
Joseph MurphyRead
Our life is always deeper than we know, is always more divine than it seems, and hence we are able to survive degradations and despairs which otherwise must engulf us.
William JamesRead
What is faith? If you believe something because you have evidence for it, or rational argument, that is not faith. So faith seems to be believing something despite the absence of evidence or rational argument for it.
Peter SingerRead
Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.
George Bernard ShawRead
It’s never quite right, all the things we are taught, all the loves we chase, all the deaths we die, all the lives we live.
Charles BukowskiRead
Now as of old the gods give men all good things, excepting only those that are baneful and injurious and useless. These, now as of old, are not gifts of the gods: men stumble into them themselves because of their own blindness and folly.
DemocritusRead