I love how he characterizedwhat Mcnamara said: Robert Mcnamara, President Kennedy’s Defense Secretary: “Vital decision making in policy matters as well as in business must remain at the top. That is partly but not completely what the top is for.” (Chomsky interjects: This apparently is a divine imperative.) Resumes quoting Mcnamara: “God is clearly democratic. He distributes brain power universally. But he quite justifiably expects us to do something efficient and constructive with that priceless gift. That’s what management is all about. Management in the end is the most creative of all the arts for its medium is human talent itself. The real threat to democracy comes from under-management. The under-management of society is not the respect of liberty. It is simply to let some force other than reason shape reality. If it is not reason that rules man then man falls short of his potential” ( Chomsky interjects: so reason is to be identified with the centralization of decision making at the top in the hands of management. Popular involvement in decision making is a threat to liberty - a violation of reason. Reason is embodied in autocratic tightly managed institutions. Strengthening these institutions in which man can function most efficiently is in [Mcnamara’s] words, “the great human adventure of our time” ……Chomsky: All of this has a familiar ring to it. CHOMSKY: I compared some passages of articles of his in the late 1960s, speeches, on management and the necessity of management, how a well-managed society controlled from above was the ultimate in freedom. The reason is if you have really good management and everything’s under control and people are told what to do, under those conditions, he said, man can maximize his potential. I just compared that with standard Leninist views on vanguard parties, which are about the same. About the only difference is that McNamara brought God in, and I suppose Lenin didn’t bring God in. He brought Marx in.
Most important video chomsky has done in relation to neo-liberal/neo-libertarian/neo-conservative white-market corporate capitalism since both the liberal elite/libertarian elite and conservative elite both unanimously agree that neo-liberal/neo-libertarian/neo-conservative white-market corporate capitalism is the current variation/version of capitalism viable/feasible/practical in both the so-called developed urbanised post-industrialised western world/western world/first-world and in the so-called under-developed/developing ruralised industrialising/industrialised eastern world/eastern world/third-world since liberalism/libertarianism is left of conservatism yet right of marxist/marxian socialism with marxist/marxian communism in mind
he answers that question directly afterwards, but more specifically at12:16 - talking about war stuff; guns, bullets, tanks - pretty much all military hardware
