On September 25, 2009 i had the rare privilege of interviewing the world renowned philosopher, linguist, political activist and author of over 100 books, Noam Chomsky, described by the NY Times as “The most important intellectual alive” at his office in Massachusetts, mere weeks before his 81st birthday. During our interview we covered a wide array of potent topics which will provide a great amount of knowledge and enjoyment to every listener. Enjoy!
Marc Okon / Noam Chomsky 9.25.09
What follows is the transcript of a short Q&A conducted through e-mail in early 2009:
Marc Okon:
While reading one of your many unauthorized biographies, i saw a giant poster of
Bertrand Russell attached to your office door,
and was reminded of one of your old statements.
Your words were ” I do not believe in the cult of personality ” If this were true, how do you reconcile the poster? Do you not see the conflict?
CHOMSKY:
Why Bertrand Russell? A good question. I do respect his work, his activism, and many of the things he’s done in his life, though by no means everything. It’s on the wall, and larger than other pictures, but it’s not the only one, though it’s the only photograph of a person. Another is a painting that depicts the horrifying decade of the 80s in Central America: the angel of death standing over the martyred Archbishop Romero and the six leading Latin American intellectuals, Jesuit priests, whose brains were blown out, their housekeeper and her daughter too, framing the decade: 1980 and 1989. Our victims, along with hundreds of thousands of others. Another is a photo that a friend and I took in Iquique, Chile, a monument to the hundreds, maybe thousands, of men, women and children slaughtered there in December 1907, perhaps the most vicious of many labor massacres, this one at the hands of the Chilean servants of Britain.
For The image of Archbishop Romero lying in a pool of blood visit:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/nhl/nhl-assassination.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/nhl/nhl-assassination.html&usg=__6uBIsnHAgBOf0kjHBtgPQApoP0=&h=515&w=568&sz=68&hl=en&start=10&sig2
=aoftgKkqVOUjqG13Kq4ow&tbnid=fwPBPkGRXiyggM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Darchbishop%2Bromero%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG&ei=KjUUSs4tlK_4BsvaubEP
Q:
In order to Manufacture Consent there must be an infrastructure built to create & deliver the product.
The tools to Manufacture Enlightenment are now available Via the Internet.
As depicted in the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Armies Of The Night by Norman Mailer you were a participant in a march on the Pentagon in protest of the Vietnam War.
Do you feel the Internet will have a positive effect on political and protest movements and if so, what should be the focus of these movements?
or
Will the Internet be co-opted by Corporate interests and become another tool of oppression?
A:
Mailer’s account was accurate, but that was a very minor element of my involvement in protest and resistance.
On the internet, either outcome is possible. It’s up to us to make the right choices and to encourage others to do so. One might say much the same about any technology: printing, for example.
Q:
It is well known you wrote your first article at age 10, regarding the spread of fascism following the fall of Barcelona.
It is highly unusual for a child to understand fascism, let alone write an article about it.
What was different about your upbringing which gave you the tools to excel so young?
&
Is it possible for all children to excel if given the proper guidance from their parents and teachers or are you just special?
A:
Some hesitation actually. I don’t think I have much to say about it. I’m sure there’s nothing special about me. The upbringing was surely part of it, but others with very similar upbringings responded very differently. So who knows? Humans are mysterious creatures.
Q:
“We Are Not At War With Islam”, this is what Obama said during his recent visit to Turkey. Do you think, as some suggest, this new approach towards the Islamic world will be an ”End of the Clash of Civilisations”?
A:
There was no beginning to the “Clash of Civilisations” so it cannot have an end. Simply consider the circumstances at the time when the doctrine was promulgated by Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington. The most populous Muslim state was Indonesia, a close US ally since 1965, when General Suharto carried out a murderous coup, killing hundreds of thousands of people and opening up the country’s rich resources to the industrial societies. He remained an honored friend though innumerable crimes at home and abroad, among them the invasion of East Timor, which came about as close to genocide as any event of the modern period. He remained “Our kind of guy,” as the Clinton administration declared in 1995, and maintained that status until he lost control and the US determined that his time was over. The most extreme fundamentalist Muslim state was Saudi Arabia, Washington’s oldest and most valued ally in the region. At the time Washington, was bringing to a bloody end its murderous wars in Central America, specifically targeting the Catholic Church. Its practitioners of “liberation theology” sought to bring the radical pacifist lessons of the Gospels to the peasant society that was suffering under the yoke of US-imposed tyrants. That was clearly unacceptable, and they became primary victims of Washington’s terrorist wars. One of the “talking points” of the famous School of the Americas is the proud boast that the US army “defeated liberation theology.” If we continue, we find familiar confrontations, but no “clash of civilizations” — a notion that was constructed at the end of the Cold War as a pretext for policies undertaken for other reasons, also familiar. Bush’s policies evoked enormous hostility in the Muslim world. Quite sensibly, Obama is trying to reduce thehostility, though there is no indication of a substantive change in policies or motives.
Episode_4-Chomsky.Okon.mp3
Marc Okon/Noam Chomsky 2009
Exhausted Noam Chomsky Just Going To Try And Enjoy The Day For Once…
LEXINGTON, MA—Describing himself as “terribly exhausted,” famed linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky said Monday that he was taking a break from combating the hegemony of the American imperialist machine to try and take it easy for once.
“I just want to lie in a hammock and have a nice relaxing morning,” said the outspoken anarcho-syndicalist academic, who first came to public attention with his breakthrough 1957 book Syntactic Structures. “The systems of control designed to manufacture consent among a largely ignorant public will still be there for me to worry about tomorrow. Today, I’m just going to kick back and enjoy some much-needed Noam Time.”
“No fighting against institutional racism, no exposing the legacies of colonialist ideologies still persistent today, no standing up to the widespread dissemination of misinformation and state-sanctioned propaganda,” Chomsky added. “Just a nice, cool breeze through an open window on a warm spring day.”
Sources reported that the 81-year-old Chomsky, a vociferous, longtime critic of U.S. foreign policy and the political economy of the mass media, was planning to use Monday to tidy up around the house a bit, take a leisurely walk in the park, and possibly attend an afternoon showing of Date Night at the local megaplex.
Sitting down to a nice oatmeal breakfast, Chomsky picked up a copy of Time, a deceitful, pro-corporate publication that he said would normally infuriate him.
“Yes, this magazine may be nothing more than a subtle media tool intended to obfuscate the government’s violent agenda with comforting bromides, but I’m not going to let that get under my skin,” Chomsky said. “I mean, why should I? It’s absolutely beautiful outside. I should just go and enjoy myself and not think about any of this stuff.”
Added Chomsky, glancing back over at the periodical, “Even if it is just another way in which individuals are methodically fed untruths that slowly shape their perceptions of reality, dulling their ability to challenge and defy a government bent on carrying out its own selfish and destructive—no, no Noam, not today, none of that today.”
According to sources close to the thinker, Chomsky also considered taking time to “plop down on the couch in [his] boxers and watch TV,” but grew suddenly enraged when The Price Is Right came on, commodifying the lie of American consumer satisfaction in a pseudo- entertainment context.
“Just change the channel, just relax and switch to something that isn’t mindless pabulum for the masses,” said Chomsky, reaching for the remote control. “No need to get furious.”
Chomsky, who often defines himself as a libertarian socialist, then changed the channel to ESPN, taking a moment to acknowledge the role of professional sports as a “weapon of mass distraction,” keeping the American people occupied with trivial competitions so they do not focus on opposing the status quo with grassroots movements against foreign and domestic policies that ultimately harm them.
“Stupid NBA playoffs,” Chomsky said. “At least it’s better than that NCAA March Madness crap. A university is supposed to be a center of learning that questions the state’s crafted messaging, not an entertainment factory.”
Sources said Chomsky took what was supposed to be a refreshing drive in the countryside, only to find himself obsessing over the role petroleum plays in the economic and military policies that collude with multinational corporate powers.
After stopping at a roadside McDonald’s, Chomsky was unable to enjoy the Big Mac he purchased, due to the popular restaurant chain’s participation in selling “a bill of goods” to the American people, who consume the unhealthy fast food and thereby bolster the capitalist system rather than buying from local farmers in order to equalize the distribution of wealth and eat more nutritiously.
Chomsky also found the burger to be too salty.
“All right, all right,” the noted critic and philosopher said, “I’m going back home, writing one—just one—reasoned, scathing essay, and getting it out of my system. But then I’m definitely going back to the park to walk around and just enjoy the nice weather. I’m serious.”
“Because there’s got to be more to life than the way that wage slavery strips the individual of his or her inherent dignity and personal integrity,” Chomsky continued. “Right?”
