Noam Chomsky, You, and Me
By SusanUnPC on December 20, 2008 at 9:00 PM in Current Affairs
Whatever our radically different views in several areas, including views of some events in recent U.S history, I do not know anyone in my immediate circle who does not admire these qualities about Noam Chomsky, a world-renowned expert and professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology):
1) he has been investigating and explaining for a long, long time — what, ten-plus years? — that the media are purveyors of disinformation, beholden to their corporate interests; and
2) he sees completely through Barack Obama. He calls him a “brand.” That is a simple, apt description, isn’t it.
He also knows that Barack Obama is a creation of the media.
The phrase he often uses is “manufactured consent.” Have you ever seen elsewhere, besides the drive to unify the country through intensive public relations efforts leading up to both Gulf Wars, another more “manufactured” image of “unity” than that which was created during the candidacy of Barack Obama?
We take, from all great minds, what we can both find useful and also apply to our own lives.
It may, at first blush, seem nonsensical to Noam Chomsky that that some of us would avoid some of the totality of his views and collections of evidence. But let me explain why that is to any Chomsky-ites and, if we somehow are privileged to have him read these words here, directly to the man himself.
Belief versus Evidence. I choose to use, with explicit purpose, the terms “his views” and his “collections of evidence” because, if he is anything, Noam Chomsky is anti-belief. And that it because “belief” requires a “suspension of disbelief,” a faith, a dream, a mirage in the desert.
“Theories” Are Still Rationally Valuable in a World-View That Eschews Belief and Only Accepts Evidence. The above section, “Belief versus Evidence,” does not mean that Mr. Chomsky, you and I cannot develop “theories.”
That is because we develop our “theories” based on 1) evidence, 2) evidence, and 3) evidence. Note the video above. Mr. Chomsky refers to the Web site of Barack Obama. He has done the investigative work, and far more than he describes in this rather short snippet in checking out Mr. Obama.
Now, it is safe to say that Mr. Chomsky similarly disdains Bill and HIllary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the whole lot of the politicians in D.C.
But I think that even he recognizes that, although he disagrees with their views, their actions, and their past choices, he knows that — in their worldview — they do have the requisite experience whereas Barack Obama is nothing more than a “brand.”
by Ronald Scott
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