The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
Noam ChomskyRead
There is no plausible theory under which the record of the Pentagon Papers can be interpreted as relating to the national defense.
Interpretation
The Pentagon Papers reveal that the U.S. government misled the public about the reasons for the Vietnam War.
Noam Chomsky emphasizes that the content of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the realities of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, cannot be justified in terms of national defense. This statement underscores the deception practiced by government officials in their narrative surrounding the war and highlights a critical examination of governmental transparency and accountability.
In practice
During a political debate about government transparency.
The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
If you're teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.
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.
The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it's hardly a traditional political party anymore.
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.
When Rumsfeld gets up on television and says we have definitive intelligence that al Qaeda is working with Iraq, how is an ordinary citizen supposed to react? They won't tell you the evidence, and when anyone asks, they say, 'Well, you know: It's secret.'
By a steady adherence to the Union we may hope, erelong, to become the arbiter of Europe in America, and to be able to incline the balance of European competitions in this part of the world as our interest may dictate.
This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed.
In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
Could you imagine if the U.N. had endorsed the war in Iraq, what our reputation would be like?
The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied.
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