Community & Government
Meet Your Instructor: Noam Chomsky
Lesson time 04:24 min
As the author of more than 150 books and one of the most cited scholars ever, Noam Chomsky is an iconoclastic linguist who’s been speaking out against illegitimate uses of power since the 1960s. He won’t hand you any answers—but he will help you discover the truth for yourself.
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Independent Thinking and Media’s Invisible Powers
Renowned scholar, linguist, and political activist Noam Chomsky explores the dark side of media. Learn to cut through propaganda, defend against manipulation, and control what you consume.
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[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING] [SWITCH CLICKS] [METAL GRINDS] [STALK CRUNCHES] [BALL BOUNCES] [THEME MUSIC] [UPBEAT MUSIC] NOAM CHOMSKY: August 6, 1945. I happened to be a counselor at a summer camp. And the announcement came over the camp radio in the morning. An atom bomb had destroyed Hiroshima. Amazingly to me, everybody went on to their next activity, swimming, arts and crafts, whatever it was. I was just utterly appalled, almost beyond description. [VIOLIN MUSIC] JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: This is Noam Chomsky, one of the most brilliant minds of our time. In the '70s, "The New York Times" called him arguably the most important intellectual alive today. Decades later, with more than 150 books to his name, his analysis of the way we understand the world around us is more crucial than ever. - Professor Chomsky, one of the difficulties about discussing your ideas is that in an obvious sense, they are hybrid. In part, they are linguistics. In part, they are philosophy. And in part, they are biology. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: He's a legendary linguist, media and political theorist. He's one of the world's most cited scholars who believes we all need to think for ourselves instead of being told what to think. - If you want to understand the way any society works, the first place to look is who is in a position to make the decisions that determine the way the society functions? JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: An important part of keeping an informed society is maintaining a well-functioning media, but the media can be vulnerable to biases. In an ever-changing world, Noam believes we should all understand how media works and know how to make sense of it. - Your father was a Hebrew scholar and it's been written about you that you proofread his book on medieval Hebrew grammar at the age of, what? 10? Something like that. Did you have a kind of genetic fate that you were going to go into to language as a result of that? [PIANO MUSIC] - Human beings are a very recent species. Modern humans arrived on the planet a couple hundred thousand years ago. That's nothing in evolutionary time. In this brief period, humans have changed the Earth enormously. - Younger generations today have the world at their fingertips. - It's a very skewed version of the world. - You talked about the responsibility of intellectuals in lifting the veil of ideology. What do you mean by that? - What you have to do is try to lift the veils of propaganda, see if you can think through for yourselves. We should recognize that science has made significant advances. Activists have opened up new vistas. But challenges which have never arisen in human history are now facing us. We know how to overcome these problems. What remains is to find the will, the dedication to move on to a much better world. Listen to the young people who are giving the answer. You don't have to listen to me. Listen to the...
About the Instructor
Dive into the invisible powers of media with Noam Chomsky. One of the most influential thinkers of our time, he’s challenged the mainstream narratives of media, corporations, and governments—for generations. Now he’s connecting his long-standing theories to the issues we care most about today. Get his cutting insights into the powers and perils of social media, AI, and disinformation in a society set up to manipulate.
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Noam Chomsky
Renowned scholar, linguist, and political activist Noam Chomsky explores the dark side of media. Learn to cut through propaganda, defend against manipulation, and control what you consume.
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