Noam Chomsky: I'd Like to Believe that People Are Born to Be Free | Bill Moyers Interview (1988)

November 3, 1988

Noam Chomsky interview on Dissent (1988)

QUESTION: Do you believe that by nature human beings yearn for freedom? Or in the interests of safety, security, and conformity, do we settle for order?

CHOMSKY: These are really matters of faith rather than knowledge. On the one hand, you have the Grand Inquisitor who tells you that what humans crave is submission, and therefore Christ is a criminal and we have to vanquish freedom. That’s one view. The other view, held by Rousseau, for example, is that people are born to be free and that their basic instinct is the desire to free themselves from coercion, authority, and oppression. Where you stake your hopes depends on what you believe. I’d like to believe that people are born to be free, but if you ask for proof, I couldn’t give it to you.