The coronavirus is serious enough but it’s worth recalling that there is a much greater horror approaching, we are racing to the edge of disaster, far worse then anything that’s happened in human history. And Donald Trump and his minions are in the lead, in racing to the abyss. In fact there are two immense threats that we are facing. One is the growing threat of nuclear war, which has exacerbated it by the tearing what’s left of the arms control regime and the other of course is the growing threat of global warming. Both threats can be dealt, but there isn’t a lot of time and the corona virus is a horrible [inaudible] can have terrifying consequences But there will be recovery, while the others won’t be recovered, it’s finished. If we don’t deal with them, we’re done. And so the childhood memories are coming back to haunt me, but [in?] a different dimension. The threat of nuclear war didn’t get a sense of where the world really is, by looking to early, to this January, as may you know every year the doomsday clock is set, set with the minute-hand at certain distance from midnight, which means termination. But, ever since Trump was elected, the minute hand has been moving closer and closer to midnight. Last year it was two minutes to midnight. The highest, matching the highest it ever reached. This year the analysts dispensed with minutes, started moving to seconds, 100 seconds to midnight That’s the closest it’s ever been. Sighting three things: The threat of nuclear war, threat of global warming and the deterioration of democracy, which doesn’t quite belong into here but it does, because that’s the only, hope that we have, for overcoming the crisis and in for [inaudible] public taking control of their fate, if that doesn’t happen, we are doomed. If we are leaving our fate to sociopathic buffoons, we’re finished. And that’s coming close, Trump is the worst, that’s because of US Power, which is overwhelming. We are talking about U.S decline, but you just look at the world, you don’t see that when the U.S imposes sanctions, murderers, devastating sanctions, that’s the only country that can do that, but everyone has to follow. Europe may not like, in fact hate [sanctions / actions ???] on Iran, but they have to follow, they have to follow the master, or else they get kicked out of the international financial system. Thats not a law of nature it’s a decision in Europe to be subordinate to the master in Washington, other countries don’t even have a choice. And back to the Coronavirus, one of the most shocking, harsh aspects of it, is the use of sanctions, to maximize the pain, perfectly consciously, Iran is in a zone, enormous internal problems. [inaudible] By the stranglehold of tightening sanctions, which are consciously designed, openly, to make the suffer and suffer bitterly now. Cuba has been suffering from it, from the moment, where it gained independence, but it’s astonishing, that they have survived but they stayed resilient and one of the most ironic elements of today’s virus crisis, is that Cuba is helping Europe. I mean this is so shocking, that you don’t know how to describe it. That Germany can’t help Greece, but Cuba can help the European countries. If you stop to think about [inaudible] what that means, all the words fail, just as when you see thousands of people dying in the Mediterranean, fleeing from a region, that has been devastated for centuries and being sent to the deaths in the Mediterranean, you don’t know what words to use. The crisis, the civilizational crisis of the West at this point is devastating, to think of them and it does bring up childhood memories of listening to Hitler raving on the radio to raucous crowds [inaudible] at the nuremburg rallies it makes you wonder if this species is even viable.”

Internationally renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky in conversation with National Observer founding editor-in-chief Linda Solomon Wood about the COVID-19 politics, the global economy and the environment.