Noam Chomsky: Spiritual Transformation and Libertarian Socialism

July 25, 1976 Noam Chomsky - 1976-05-11 - Anarchism - BBC Interview https://archive.org/details/Chomsky051176BBCAnarchy Noam Chomsky - The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism (1976) /watch/IEkqF3Y0x_h0q https://chomsky.info/19760725/ Q: How far does the success of libertarian socialism or anarchism really depend on a fundamental change in the nature of man, both in his motivation, his altruism, and also in his knowledge and sophistication? Noam Chomsky: I think it not only depends on it but in fact the whole purpose of libertarian socialism is that it will contribute to it. It will contribute to a spiritual transformation — precisely that kind of great transformation in the way humans conceive of themselves and their ability to act, to decide, to create, to produce, to enquire — precisely that spiritual transformation that social thinkers from the left-Marxist traditions, from Luxembourg, say, through anarcho-syndicalists, have always emphasized. So, on the one hand, it requires that spiritual transformation. On the other hand, its purpose is to create institutions which will contribute to that transformation in the nature of work, the nature of creative activity, simply in social bonds among people, and through this interaction of creating institutions which permit new aspects of human nature to flourish. And then the building of still more libertarian institutions to which these liberated human beings can contribute. This is the evolution of socialism as I understand it. Q: What does revolution mean to you? Noam Chomsky: I cannot improve on Rosa Luxemburg’s eloquent critique of Leninist doctrine: a true social revolution requires a “spiritual transformation in the masses degraded by centuries of bourgeois class rule... it is only by extirpating the habits of obedience and servility to the last root that the working class can acquire the understanding of a new form of discipline, self-discipline arising from free consent”. And as part of this “spiritual transformation”, a true social revolution will, furthermore, create – by the spontaneous activity of the mass of the population – the social forms that enable people to act as free creative individuals, with social bonds replacing social fetters, controlling their own destiny in freedom and solidarity. Noam Chomsky: What does revolution mean to you? (2013) https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/what-does-revolution-mean-you

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