Noam Chomsky has some tough love for America.

"The United States is a victim of self-inflicted wounds which are significantly harming the economy and society in many ways," Chomsky recently stated, though he also admitted that, "even with the neoliberal policies, since President Reagan and comparable to Europe, the U.S. remains, in realistic terms, the richest country in the world and has enormous advantages. Still a position of overwhelming power, but “not as what it was, in particular, with regard to Latin America.”

But Chomsky remains hopeful both for Latin America and the U.S.

“I think there have been quite hopeful developments in the last 10 or 15 years," Chomsky said. "Indigenous communities have begun to find a voice for the first time in countries with large indigenous populations like Bolivia…Ecuador there are plenty of conflicts between the indigenous people and the governments they initially supported. That’s an tremendous step forward for the entire world. It’s a kind of incredible irony that all over the world the leading forces in trying to prevent a race to disaster are the indigenous communities," he explained.

It's no secret that we may be on the brink of disaster, but Chomsky has some great insights into who he believes will save us.

"Anyone who’s not living under a rock knows that we’re facing potential environmental catastrophe and not in the distant future. All over the world, it’s the indigenous communities trying to hold us back: first nations in Canada, indigenous people in Bolivia, aborigines in Australia, tribal people in India. It’s phenomenal all over the world that those who we call ‘primitive’ are trying to save those of us who we call ‘enlightened’ from total disaster," said Chomsky.

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