---
title: "Noam Chomsky, who is an inexhaustible fount of anticommunist caricatu… — Noam Chomsky Quote #218 | QuotesBy.net"
description: "Noam Chomsky, who is an inexhaustible fount of anticommunist caricatures, offers this comment about Leninism: 'Western and also Third World intellect… — a quote by Noam Chomsky."
image: "https://quotesby.net/wp-content/themes/quotesby-editorial/assets/og-default.png"
---

> # Noam Chomsky, who is an inexhaustible fount of anticommunist caricatures, offers this comment about Leninism: 'Western and also Third World intellectuals were attracted to the Bolshevik counterrevolution because Leninism is, after all, a doctrine that says that the radical intelligentsia have a right to take state power and to run their countries by force, and that is an idea which is rather appealing to intellectuals.' Here Chomsky fashions an image of power-hungry Leninists, villains seeking not the revolutionary means to fight injustice but power for power's sake. When it comes to Red-bashing, some of the best and brightest on the Left sound not much better than the worst on the Right. \[...\] According to Noam Chomsky, communism 'was a monstrosity,' and 'the collapse of tyranny' in Eastern Europe and Russia is 'an occasion for rejoicing for anyone who values freedom and human dignity.' I treasure freedom and human dignity yet find no occasion for rejoicing. The postcommunist societies do not represent a net gain for such values. If anything, the breakup of the communist states has brought a colossal victory for global capitalism and imperialism, with its correlative increase in human misery, and a historic setback for revolutionary liberation struggles everywhere. --Michael Parenti, Blackshirts and Reds, 1997 \[199\]

[Noam Chomsky](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky)\#218

[Politics](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/politics/)[Chomsky](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/chomsky/)[Power](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/power/)[Ideology](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/ideology/)

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## About this quote

What does it mean?Chomsky criticizes Leninism as a doctrine for seizing state power by force.In plain termsHe says Leninism appeals to intellectuals who want power.What can you take from it?Power hungry ideologies appeal to intellectuals.

### Where it applies

- assessing ideologies
- comparing political systems
- critiquing the left

### Putting it to work

- critique authoritarianism
- value freedom over power

### Questions to consider

- Is seizing state power inherently flawed?
- Why do intellectuals support authoritarianism?

### Another view

This summary simplifies complex debates about revolutionary means.

## More from Noam Chomsky

1. > Unlike many leftists of his generation, Chomsky never flirted with movements or organizations that were later revealed to be totalitarian, oppressive, exclusio…

[Permalink to quote \#217](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/217/ "Permalink to quote 217")
2. > ...the problem lies in Chomsky's description of Serb atrocities as 'quite real' and 'often ghastly'. 'Quite real ' is a cop-out for very real. Atrocities 'shar…

[Permalink to quote \#219](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/219/ "Permalink to quote 219")
3. > Chomsky's truly great contribution to the struggle for human freedom is that he has taken what we have been persuaded to believe is an insane idea, a product o…

[Permalink to quote \#216](https://quotesby.net/Noam-Chomsky/216/ "Permalink to quote 216")

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