One could understand progressive-minded people calling the 2010 Republican wave the end of the world, but who would take them literally?
MIT professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky warned the end is near. In an interview with the Nation magazine and On The Earth Productions earlier this month, Chomsky, known for his distinct left-of-center philosophy, commented on the emotion in the electorate.
“There’s other factors like the anger, and the fear and hostility in the country about everything carries over to this,” Chomsky said. “So if you look at polls, everyone hates Congress. They hate the Democrats. They hate the Republicans even more. They hate big business. They hate banks and they distrust scientists. So why should we believe what these pointy-head elitist are telling? We don’t trust anything else. We don’t trust them.”
He explained those feelings led to November’s election results, and would have serious repercussions for civilization.
“All of this combines the latest election a couple of days ago,” he continued. “You could almost interpret it a kind of a death knell for the species. There was an article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, you know – not a radical rag exactly. They’re running through the new Republicans coming to Congress and they’re worried about them.”
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The problem? The new members of Congress aren’t on board with the theory of anthropogenic global warming.
“One of the reasons is because they’re global warming deniers,” he said. “Almost all – that means the powerful House committees, like science and technology and so on, are in hands of people who think there’s nothing to it – or at least claim that they think that, but what they actually think is another story.”
He pointed toward the United States’ stature in the world as to why it means the entire downfall of humanity.
“If this was happening in some small country, in you know maybe Monaco or something, it wouldn’t matter much, but when it’s happening in the richest, most powerful country in the world – it’s a danger to the survival of the species,” Chomsky said. “Nobody else is going to do much if the United States doesn’t do a lot, not just some but take the lead. So we’re essentially saying let’s kiss each other goodbye.”
