'Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously' - FACTS About the man I admire
Andrew Charles Kennis (holden@escape.com)
Sun, 10 May 1998 04:36:12 -0400 (EDT)
Hello everybody,
Being that the most cited scholar in this century is somebody that has
influenced my ideals, morality, beliefs, and even aspirations more than
anybody or anything else as of late, I thought that I would clear up what
I belived to be several misconceptions that one poster had about
Professor Noam Chomsky of the linguistics department at MIT.
<snip>
On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Win Boogie wrote:
> In a message dated 98-04-17 03:33:27 EDT, you write:
>
> <<
> I know absolutely nothing about Chomsky....
>
> Scottie B.
> >>
>
> This is where you are truly missing out by not being American, Scottie.
>
Um, hardly. AmeriKKKans are LESS familiar with Noam Chomsky than those
who are overseas, moreso in fact than perhaps any other country in the
world. Although this may seem like an exaggeration, it really is not.
Noam's politics, particularly his anti-U.$. stances, has successfully
marginalized him from mainstream notoriety in this country. Abroad, it is a
far different story. Anybody who follows or admires Noam, knows as much,
from the simple fact that media coverage of him when he speaks abroad, is
unbelievably greater than that of his domestic appearances / lectures.
What's more, the award winning documentary about Noam (entitled,
'Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media') was an international
favorite and box office hit; not so here in the grand ole' 'free and open
media' (pffft!) climate of corporate AmeriKKKa, where Blockbuster and
most any other god foresaken corporate video stores (or movie theater for
that matter) *never* have a copy on their shelves!
<snip>
> Chomsky is reknown both as an innovative linguist and as a wacky leftist
> political theorist. He is on faculty at MIT and every few years one of the
> daily papers here seeks him out so he can rail against the system, and
> complain that no one will publish his political books. His linguistic books
> are quite well respected.
>
Um, if anybody doesn't engage in shameless self promotion and whining
that is a public figure of sorts, it's Noam. Unbelievably modest, I have
never heard of Chomsky complaining about *his* works not getting
published, after all, *they are published* (the man has published over 40
books, almost half of which were political). What he might be
somewhat unhappy about, is the difficulty he *and* other anti-U.$.
theorists have publishing books in these modern 'corporate / big
publishing' times. It also would certainly be understandable that if you
were the most cited scholar in the century and had trouble publishing
books, you might be a little miffed as to what was the problem was, and
would probably also begin to suspect that you were being marginalized simply
for having unique political beliefs that differ from the mainstream
bullshit.
As far as his linguistic books being 'well respected', I think it's safe
to say that that's a severe understatement. His 'A Case Against B.F.
Skinner' obliterated behaviorism and at the very least, did as much more
so than any other previous linguist this century. Dozens of other books
on linguistics prompted the NY Times to call his writings a dawning of
a new age/era in linguistics, appropriately called the "Chomskyan
Revolution of Linguistics".
<snip>
> I once attended a political fund raiser for some local political hack where
> Chomsky's name was on the guest list. This was an amazing irony as far as I
> was concerned. I signed in as Chomsky and wore his name tag for the evening.
> No one associated with the candidate was aware of what I was doing, and the
> guests who were aware weren't amused. I do share the same wacky politics as
> Chomsky, but I was at this event solely for the rare opportunity for rabble
> like myself to cop a meal at the Harvard Club.
>
I hardly think Chomsky's politics are 'wacky'. A strong advocate of
particpatory democracy, a stellar defender of human rights, a strong
opponent of imperialism and media propaganda, and finally a staunch enemy
of capitalism and power politics, Chomsky's politics may be left, but they
sure as hell are sensible and far from wacky. So sensible, that even his
most criticized foes, i.e. the New York Times, have dubbed him as the
'most important intellectual of our time.'
> It's good to see old Noam's name crop on our humble list here. it's like
> talking to any cafe dweller in Cambridge, if you wait long enough
> Chomsky's will come up as a topic.
> Best,
> Robert
>
Ya, this is one sentiment I can agree with. Indeed, it is nice to see
Chomsky pop up on our list as a topic. However, with more though, I
realized that it is actually highly appropriate, rather than
surprising or anything like that, that any list serve of intellectual
merit and interest would talk about the intellectual who is most cited
and/or talked about most, worldwide (if not in the U.$., with maybe some
snobby Boston cafes being the exception).
Finally, for all of the young people on this list who are hip to some kick
ass bands and wanna know about their influences, well, RAGE aGaInSt tHe
MaCHinE's guitarist Tom Morello has a great interview with Chomsky
that is online @ http://www.worldmedia.com/archive/rage/ (if anybody is
lacking decent web access and would like a transcript sent to them
directly through e-mail, please E me a request stating as much). In
addition, Radiohead quotes him inside their album cover of their most
recent EP with this passage from the Chomsky Reader:
"...people would like to think that there's somebody up there who knows
what he's doing. since we don't participate, we don't control and we
don't even think about questions of vital importance. we hope somebody is
paying attention who has some competence. let's hope the ship has a
captain, in other words, since we're not taking part in what's going
on.....
....it is an important feature of the ideological system to impose
on people the feeling that they really are incompetent to deal with these
complex and important issues: they'd better leave it to the captain. one
device is to develop a star system, an array of figures who are often
media creations or creations of the academic propaganda establishment,
whose deep insights we are supposed to admire and to whom we must happily
and confidently assign the right to control our lives and to control
international affairs."
Finally, if anybody is interested in learning and/or reading more on
Chomsky's political writings, check out a great site with tons of
material @ http://www.worldmedia.com
Ok, with that, I'm audi,
--AK