Of course, the other side of that equation is you need people to be milled into cogs for any society to function efficiently. Someone has to keep the wheels greased. Or be the wheel grease. The majority of folks aren't capable of thinking for themselves anyway, nor would they enjoy it, and love being submissive. Just give them a good dose of vapid pop culture during their downtime and they will be just fine. If they get too uppity, we have psychotropic drugs and legal pot to keep them plodding along pulling the drayage. Hey, I like this system. It enables algae like me to live between the cracks.

Not a huge Chomsky fan, but he hits on something occasionally. Ironically, he is the perfect example of what he complains about here, a professional state sponsored academic. He became a multi-millionaire from criticizing the system that made him one of its wealthy elites. He has never known any life outside of the ivory tower, as his parents were of that caste also. He got into college at 16 and never even had a part time job as a soda jerk in his teens. I am always wary of working-class heroes that have never had a shitty job. He has been described as a very competitive academic in collecting degrees, an 'institutional capitalist'. Honors, prestige, and titles take the place of money in university settings. His withering attacks of the status quo have a theatrical smell to them at times. He is definitely coming from the showbiz side of academia. Chomsky got some fresh wind in his sails by having 80's era Flying A anarchists like Jello Biafra taking a liking to his rhetoric. Hot Topic anarchism kind of faded away as capitalism co-opted all its symbology. But Noam is going strong at 93 and still bitching and moaning about stuff, so God bless him.