Claire Bernish
February 24, 2016
“Fear, along with the breakdown of society during the neoliberal period. People feel isolated, helpless, victim of powerful forces they do not understand and cannot influence.”
In fact, as Chomsky cautioned, the current social atmosphere that led to Donald Trump’s rise may actually be worse than the build-up to fascism in the early twentieth century:
“It’s interesting to compare the situation in the ‘30s, which I’m old enough to remember. Objectively, poverty and suffering were far greater. But even among poor working people and the unemployed, there was a sense of hope that is lacking now, in large part because of the growth of a militant labor movement and also the existence of political organizations outside the mainstream.”
Both Jeremy Corbyn in the U.K. and Sanders in the U.S. have conveyed signs of empathy toward traditional labor movements, Chomsky noted, calling the Vermont senator “an honest and decent New Deal Democrat.”
He added, tellingly, “The fact that they are regarded as ‘extreme’ is a comment on the shift to the right of the whole political spectrum during the neoliberal period.”