Skip to content
quotesby

Say, take Rachel Corrie, local young woman, she was extremely courageous. She's a martyr for peace and justice. We happened to kill her too, even if we don't like to admit it. She was killed by U.S. sent equipment, which is Caterpillar... [Q: you draw that line right back to you and me sitting here?] Absolutely, we're responsible for it. I mean, we didn't drive the bulldozer, but why is it there? What's it doing? Who provides the military, economic, and diplomatic support for destroying the occupied territories?

Noam Chomsky#199

PeaceUs foreign policyResponsibility

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker argues that civilians are complicit in military actions funded by their support, specifically citing the death of Rachel Corrie by U.S.-supplied equipment.
In plain terms
We are responsible for violence enabled by our government's support, even if we didn't pull the trigger.
What can you take from it?
Citizens bear moral responsibility for state actions they fund or support.

Where it applies

  • political discourse
  • activism
  • foreign policy debate

Putting it to work

  • critiquing military aid
  • analyzing corporate involvement in war
  • discussing bystander responsibility

Questions to consider

  • How much responsibility do citizens bear for their government's actions?
  • Where does complicity end and innocence begin?

Another view

It oversimplifies individual agency by equating all taxpayers with direct perpetrators.

More from Noam Chomsky

  1. The past month was the 10th anniversary of the massacres in Rwanda, and there was much soul-searching about our failure to do anything about them. So headlines…

    Permalink to quote #198
  2. The question of whether a computer is playing chess, or doing long division, or translating Chinese, is like the question of whether robots can murder or airpl…

    Permalink to quote #200
  3. [Q: do you believe that a nation should suffer a detrimental cost in order to compensate for wrongs committed by the governors of that nations, or by segments …

    Permalink to quote #197

Related quotes

  1. Throughout history, people have lived in poverty and misery. They have been degraded by hunger and ignorance, they have tormented each other and been driven in…

    Olof PalmeOlof Palme quote #1
  2. 'The world is the most dangerous place it's ever been now because of what our country has done, and is doing, and we have to take it back.'

    Ramsey ClarkRamsey Clark quote #2
  3. It is with appreciation and gratefulness that I accept from you this scroll for the Los Alamos Laboratory, and for the men and women whose work and whose heart…

    J. Robert OppenheimerJ. Robert Oppenheimer quote #3