Chomsky: the national state and the transnational corporations

[paineinthearse]

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=10&ItemID=7885

State and Corp.
by Noam Chomsky and ZNet Germany; May 18, 2005

Q: We want to talk about the two dominant power structures of the modern era: the national state and the transnational corporations. The first question is, could you please talk about the rise of this concept of the national state: Why was it created, and what were its consequences?

Well, the nation state is pretty much a European invention, I mean there were similar things, but the nation state in the modern form was largely created in Europe over many centuries. It's so unnatural and artificial that it had to be imposed by extreme violence. In fact that's the primary reason why Europe was the most savage part of the world for centuries. It was due to trying to impose a nation state system on cultures and societies that are varied and if you look at them had no relation to this artificial structure.

In fact the derivative effects were also the main reason the concept spread elsewhere. In the course of creating modern nation states, Europe developed a culture of savagery and a technology of violence which enabled it to conquer the world, and as it conquered the world it attempted to impose nation state systems wherever it went, also artificial and violent. If you look at today's major conflicts around the world, most of them are the residue of European efforts to impose nation state systems where it doesn't make any sense, which is almost everywhere. The few exceptions to this are places of European colonization where they simply exterminated the indigenous population, like the United States and Australia. So there you get more homogeneous societies. On the other hand, the primary reason why the savage conflicts in Europe ended in 1945 was that it was recognized that if they continued this game any longer, they'd just wipe themselves out. So you have, since 1945, a peace internal to Europe. Germans and French don't regard it as their highest goal in life to slaughter each other anymore.

In the course of the development of the nation state system, there also developed on the side various economic arrangements which about a century ago turned into what became contemporary corporate capitalism, mostly imposed by judicial arrangements, not by legislation, and very tightly integrated and linked to the the powerful states. So today you can't dissociate the powerful states, the G8, the ones that are meeting in Edinburgh, which is really G1 or G3 or something like that with little participation of others, from this hisory. It's impossible to distinguish the modern dominant states from the multinational corporate system, the conglomerates that rely on them, that have a relation of both dependency and domination to them.

more........

[Roland99]

1. Great interview...esp. the last question about the Iraqi elections.

[applegrove]

2. I so agree that capital flight is a big issue. Too bad that the Bush WH

has so enraged people that the corporations are getting the worst reputation possible. If they had been less aggressive in remaking our countries in their own elite image..we may not have gotten on these issues as quickly as we have.

I don't think we would have any wealth whatsoever if we did not have corporations.(and by wealth I mean the money we all have over and above what we could grow on a small farm..which is no money at all - most of the world lives that way). They certainly are efficient. But what is left when the jobs go away. And the equality in the United States (middle class) begins to vanish.

How can that be good for corporations? How can it be good for corporations if people decide to vote for either blue or red corporations? They loose half their market right there and then.

Will be sad if people are so politicized that they turn to the internet and coops for their imports. Or if they turn to foreign corporations like costco.

And what have corporations been doing to the pension funds?

Bush certainly has ruined the America brand.

[struggle4progress]

3. kick