NOAM CHOMSKY, Havens Center, Orpheum Theater, Madison WI 4/2010

Noam Chomsky
"THE ROLE OF THE RADICAL INTELLECTUAL: SOME PERSONAL REFLECTIONS"
Thursday, April 8, 2010,

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• chomsky

[wnxsilence]

Noam Chomsky is truly one of the great minds of the 20th and 21st century, a scientist, honest scholar, activist, and dissident. I think not only a beacon of enlightenment for America, but the world. For me he has been a inspiration, to what can be achieved by principled rational dissidence. If America has anything left to call the "envy of the world" I think it would be Chomsky.

[TheNicomacheanEthics]

God bless uncle Chomsky.

[Loltochapel]

@2204Alpha He is a anarchist.So therefore he does not believe in the existence of the state

States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.

Noam chomsky

[2204Alpha]

Noam Chomsky is so old, he still thinks mother government will save us all!

[decidererer]

@hardreset1 First of all, he didn't comment on Hayek and Rand, he said that the rich would carry their copies of Hayek and Rand with them as they cheerfully took state aid. As for your statement - "any state intervention is anathema" - is that really Hayek? Hayek was influenced by protonazi theorist Carl Schmitt and both believed in a very strong state intervention against democracy, a form called authoritarian liberalism. Example: Pinochet in Chile.

[decidererer]

as usual, chomsky has little to say about organizing... his analysis of today's reality rocks, but honestly, i think we know what's going on now... what's interesting is chomsky's reading of the spanish anarchist document, reporting that this was a great success... thus, chomsky holds up a self-reported, short-lived dream as a model, but that's not a morally or intellectually serious call to organize... that's just fantasizing

[bapyou]

@millec60 "Chomsky said it was actually the CIA at fault and that Pol Pot was a victim of American imperialism."

No, Chomsky never wrote any such thing. What IS true is American imperialism -- specifically America's bombing of Cambodia & the resulting destabilization of the entire countryside -- gave rise to demagogues such as Pol. Further, following Pol's murderous campaign, when he began to fight the Vietnamese, the US had no qualms giving him millions in aid.

[centurion180ad]

Once again, Professor Chomsky’s depictions of the views of Adam Smith are spot on. It is good to see, intellectual honesty.

[kevrs2]

i must say "leo sayer" is looking his age ,but its good to see him (at the start ),..if just for a moment ,thanks leo and there wont be a mention of the dirty underpants :)

[pepintheshort100]

Mr. Chomsky, who runs America?

Who screwed up America?

You uber-educated asshole!

[hardreset1]

I have alot of respect for Chomsky, I consider him insightful and ethical. However his reference to Hayek and Rand is completely out of sync with their teachings. He is suggesting that those brilliant philospher/economists would encourage saving the banks. They would not. In a free market no one is too big to fail and any state intervention is anathema.