Noam Chomsky: A relation of authority that places some above others is illegitimate by assumption

March 22, 2002
Authoritarian hierarchical relations among human beings are illegitimate by assumption
Noam Chomsky - Conversations with History (2002)
• Noam Chomsky - Convers...
web.archive.or...
Transcript:
web.archive.or...
Q: What is your notion of legitimate power? Under what circumstances is power legitimate?
Noam Chomsky: The core of the anarchist tradition, as I understand it, is that power is always illegitimate, unless it proves itself to be legitimate. So the burden of proof is always on those who claim that some authoritarian hierarchic relation is legitimate. If they can't prove it, then it should be dismantled.
Can you ever prove it? Well, it's a heavy burden of proof to bear, but I think sometimes you can bear it. So to take a homely example, if I'm walking down the street with my four-year-old granddaughter, and she starts to run into the street, and I grab her arm and pull her back, that's an exercise of power and authority, but I can give a justification for it, and it's obvious what the justification would be. And maybe there are other cases where you can justify it. But the question that always should be asked uppermost in our mind is, "Why should I accept it?" It's the responsibility of those who exercise power to show that somehow it's legitimate. It's not the responsibility of anyone else to show that it's illegitimate. It's illegitimate by assumption, if it's a relation of authority among human beings which places some above others. That's illegitimate by assumption. Unless you can give a strong argument to show that it's right, you've lost.

[@wonkmonk]

Noam Chomsky: YOU ARE A WAGE SLAVE (and you don't even realize it)
czcams.com/video/vwWx2Zidzow/video.html