Noam Chomsky - What We Really Want

Summary

In this transcript of Noam Chomsky's discussion, the idea that human nature is inherently inclined towards material comfort is challenged. Chomsky argues against the belief that seeking comfort and selfishness is 'bedrock' human nature, highlighting how society and industries, particularly advertising, have manipulated this perception over decades. Through various examples, he illustrates how people often seek dignity, self-worth, and significance over material gain, contrary to the superficial wants encouraged by modern capitalism and marketing.

Highlights

• Chomsky disputes the idea that people fundamentally seek material comfort, stating it's a construct of advertising. 🛋️
• Advertising has long aimed to divert people's focus to consumerism, influencing even children's behavior to pursue superficial goals. 📺
• Despite promoted superficial cravings, many still naturally desire meaningful, creative, and dignified lives. 🎨
• Examples from history indicate that working-class individuals have sought education and cultural enrichment. 🎭
• Chomsky argues for a more informed society free from manipulative advertising roles. 🗞️

Key Takeaways

• Chomsky challenges the notion that humans inherently desire material comfort over anything else. 🤔
• He argues that advertising and societal structures have manipulated this perception for over a century. 📢
• According to Chomsky, people naturally seek dignity, independence, and creativity instead of just wealth and commodities. 🌟
• He provides historical and contemporary examples to show that many individuals, including the working class, aspire for meaningful pursuits. 📚
• Chomsky suggests that much of consumer mentality is constructed rather than rooted in true human nature. 🛍

Overview

In this fascinating discussion, Noam Chomsky tackles the deep-seated belief that seeking material comfort and self-interest is human nature. Contrary to popular opinion, Chomsky asserts that these attitudes have been heavily shaped by the advertising industry, which for decades has aimed to steer people towards consumerism. Through manipulating desires and even targeting children, advertising has sought to foster a culture where superficiality is paramount.

Chomsky illustrates that, historically, many people have pursued knowledge and creativity over mere comfort. He references examples such as the 19th-century working-class press, where many individuals, despite minimal formal education, aspired to cultural and intellectual fulfillment. The desire to engage in meaningful work, maintain self-worth, and strive for significant accomplishments forms the core of human aspiration, rather than simply acquiring more wealth or products.

Throughout his exploration, Chomsky encourages readers to rethink what truly comprises human nature and to recognize the immense societal effort that has been placed upon crafting a materialistic identity. He suggests that rather than passively consuming media and goods, people have a natural inclination towards creativity, independence, and critical thinking, urging a reconnection with these intrinsic values.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 02:30: Introduction and Material Comfort The chapter opens by highlighting a societal trend where teenage girls prefer spending their free time in shopping malls over libraries. This behavior is presented as a reflection of broader cultural values and material comforts that prioritize consumerism and leisure activities over educational or intellectual pursuits. The author notes that this is a thought-provoking observation, suggesting a shift in societal priorities that may warrant further discussion and reflection.
• 02:30 - 06:00: Advertising and Consumer Culture The chapter explores the concept of material comfort as a fundamental human desire. It argues that deep down, individuals prioritize material comfort above other activities like going to the library or participating in democratic processes such as voting.
• 06:00 - 09:00: Innate Human Desires The chapter titled "Innate Human Desires" explores the conflict between our obligations and our natural inclinations towards comfort. It highlights the inner struggle of individuals who, despite making an effort to fulfill responsibilities like going to work, visiting sick friends, or offering support, ultimately yearn to relax and enjoy leisurely activities, such as watching entertaining programs from the comfort of a cozy sofa. This section delves into the fundamental human desire for ease and the balance we seek between duty and personal satisfaction.
• 09:00 - 13:00: Historical Perspectives and Wage Labor The chapter delves into the concept of wage labor by contrasting it with a leisurely, consumer-driven lifestyle where people seek material comfort, highlighting human selfishness. These insights are framed within a broader historical context to provide a deeper understanding of human motivations and economic behaviors over time.
• 13:00 - 17:30: Media and Consumer Economy This chapter introduces the concept of media and its impact on consumer behavior within the economy. It challenges the idea that human nature is fundamentally unchangeable, particularly in regards to effort and political attitudes. The discussion argues against the notion that human nature is fixed, citing over a century of efforts aimed at persuading people to believe otherwise, suggesting that there is substantial evidence to refute this position.

Noam Chomsky - What We Really Want Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 you mentioned just in passing teenage girls if they have a free Saturday afternoon they like to walk around in the shopping mall rather than going to the library so I found that very thought-provoking because I think that many people and I would have to include my
• 00:30 - 01:00 myself uh believe that deep deep down what we all really want is material comfort for ourselves that this is what we all want more than anything else we we we may make an effort and go to the library we may make an effort and and uh vote we
• 01:00 - 01:30 may make an effort and uh go to work or even visit a sick friend or say a friendly word to someone who is in trouble but what we really would like to do is sit on a big comfortable sofa and watch a an entertaining program on a big
• 01:30 - 02:00 beautiful television set and maybe have somebody bring us some uh hot fudge Sundays or bon bons while we're watching the program that this is what people what I'm really like what what everyone is really like selfish and and really seeking material comfort
• 02:00 - 02:30 efort and that that is human nature that is bedrock human nature and I think a lot of our political attitudes come from the fact that we think we can never get away from that that's what we are now do you share that view not in the least and I think there's plenty of evidence against it there is has been a massive effort for over a hundred years to to try to convince people that that's
• 02:30 - 03:00 what we are it's called advertising there's a it's a huge industry it's dedicated explicitly openly to trying to you read the business press a 100 years ago and it's taking off to U uh try to direct people to The Superficial things of life like fashionable consumption get them out of our hair by getting them involved in consumption
• 03:00 - 03:30 and huge efforts go into this uh for example about 20 or 30 years ago the advertising industry realize that there's a sector of the population that they're not reaching because they don't have money known as children so and some bright guys figured well we can get around this the children don't have money but their parents do so what we have to do is direct television programs for children and so on to
• 03:30 - 04:00 uh try to induce what's called nagging try to get the this is literally the case create nagging propaganda by now if you look at academic um uh applied psychology departments there are actually programs studying different kinds of nagging and how you can induce it and if you watch children's television I've seen this with my grandchildren is two-year-old kids are looking at things and they're being induced to try to get your parents
• 04:00 - 04:30 to get me this thing or else I'm going to die you know and so on then the parents get it and you throw it away in five minutes but every aspect of our life is devoted to this my wife and I went were taken by a friend a couple weeks ago to see a uh what do you call it the the baseball you the prepar the pre season Baseball spring training right and you take a look at the stadium every inch is
• 04:30 - 05:00 covered with an ad I mean I remember first baseball game I went to was in the 1930s there were no ads anywhere now every inch is an ad every taxi cab you look at is an ad every minute of your life is inundated with efforts to turn you into the kind of person you're describing so is that human nature I don't think so so take a look at these Trump voters again so these Working Class People and uh
• 05:00 - 05:30 say rural towns which manufacturing towns in Arkansas and take a listen to what they're saying these are people who men who want to work in Coal Mines which is not fun rather than to take a government handout they don't want to sit on the couch and being given a government handout that undermines their sense of dignity of selfworth of doing something significant uh and I think that's what people are uh you go back back further
• 05:30 - 06:00 there plenty of evidence for it there's there's a wonderful study huge study of the reading habits of the British working class in the late 19th century Jonathan Rose very detailed say well were're British workers reading turns out they were better educated than um than the aristocrats uh and say Eastern Massachusetts Boston where I live the an Irish blacksmith if he could make enough
• 06:00 - 06:30 money would hire a boy to read to him while he's working I mean I can remember this from childhood in the 1930s most of my family were F IM immigrants you know first first generation unemployed working class they were quite educated many of them didn't go to school you know maybe fourth grade but they read they went to concerts uh they went to Shakespeare plays they talked about it they were interested in politics I mean I think
• 06:30 - 07:00 it's taken huge efforts to try to drive all of this out of people's heads I think the natural thing for humans is to want to be independent creative whether creative I mean maybe you work on a uh you know fixing up um old cars in your garage in the weekend instead of sitting in the watching television whatever it may be you want to do something that's significant that's worth that's worthwhile Maybe even if it's a ugly horrible job like
• 07:00 - 07:30 working in a coal mine instead of taking a government hand out because people I think want dignity and a sense of selfworth and a sense of creating and doing something important that's what we are and I think it's taken huge efforts enormous efforts huge part of the economy is devoted to trying to drive these things out of people's heads to make you think that all you want is more Commodities so you should go shopping instead of reading let's
• 07:30 - 08:00 see so that people most people by this account really have been uh uh unnaturally squashed into being something much much smaller than they could be or than they should be and want to be and want to be in fact it's pretty interesting to go back to there's good studies of the work working class press
• 08:00 - 08:30 in the early Industrial Revolution in the united or England it's earlier in the United States it would be mid 19th century late 19th century it was a very Lively workingclass press a lot of it written by young women young women from the Farms called Factory girls who run their own newspapers and uh the material there's a lot of material on it and it's pretty interesting uh what they wanted was dignity
• 08:30 - 09:00 they hated the industrial system because it was turning it was destroying their rights as independent people uh they attacked what sometimes they call the idea the slogan they denounced the slogan gain wealth forgetting all but self in other words the kind of person that you think we all are that we're taught we all are that's what they were condemning we don't want to just gain wealth forgetting all but s we want
• 09:00 - 09:30 dignified independent lives they regarded wage labor as uh not very different from slavery which was just a popular idea that was a slogan of the Republican Party literally Abraham Lincoln and so on because it takes you're selling yourself if you're a wage laborer if you sell something you created let's say you're an artisan and you make something and you sell it you're not selling yourself if you sell your labor you're selling yourself
• 09:30 - 10:00 you're losing your dignity and Independence it's an attack on your fundamental rights these are themes that run right through the spontaneous uh Productions of mostly uneducated working class what we call uneducated workingclass people it was the same in England before us I think it's the same elsewhere I just don't think people are it's you talk about human nature I think we're talking about something that's constructed and contrived with enormous effort conscious
• 10:00 - 10:30 effort um you look at in in the television industry there's what's called content and fill in a program content is the ads fill is the car chase that you pull off the shelf to keep people watching between the ads and if you just watch television you can see that the creativity the thought the funding and
• 10:30 - 11:00 so on is going into the ads and not into the fill you know and newspaper industry there's what they call the news hole so you lay out the newspaper first you get all the ads that's what matters then there's this news hole where you put in things to keep people watching I mean this is literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year huge part of the economy goes into this an interesting aspect of this which is kind of interestingly not studied very much has
• 11:00 - 11:30 to do with basic economics so anyone who took an economics course or you know reads about it knows that uh the uh a market economy is supposed to be based on informed consumers making rational choices that's what we're taught our economy is take turn on the television set and take a look at the content the ad are they trying to create informed
• 11:30 - 12:00 consumers making rational choices I mean if we had a market economy uh if there was an ad it would be an announcement by say Ford Motor Company uh here are the characteristics of the cars I'm producing next year here's what consumer review says about them that would create informed consumers making rational choices that's not what you see there's huge eort efforts to try to create irrational
• 12:00 - 12:30 consumers uninformed consumers making irrational choices to undermine market economies yes and to turn people into U people who believe may even believe that what they want is to sit on a couch and watch television it's not what they want as beings