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Agathon
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Leafs 4TW!! - CPA
Dec 2002
time: 00:28
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quote:
Originally posted by The Andy-Man
I havn;t read any of his work (read an introduction, and generally know what he has said).
What i'd like to know, is he actualyl anygood? Or is he just one of these 'shock-them' left-wing authors, who stuff only really means anything to people who are ignorant or are new to this sort of subject.
Because, if you ask me, any half intelligent person, more then likeley left wing, will pretty much have grasped everything he seems to rattle on about from their own observations? |
Chomsky is a strange man. I once saw him speak a few years back. He is very persuasive and has a quiet charisma about him.
He is probably one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, but not for his politics. His theories about our innate capacities for language use and his view of the mind inaugurated the "cognitive revolution" which is the basis of Cognitive science.
You can read about Chomsky as a philosopher here:
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~pboha...w/newintro.html
As a political thinker he is (a self acknowledged) amateur. He's a sort of Libetarian anarchist who despises both left and right wing totalitarianism. Sometimes he goes a bit overboard, but, as you say, much of what he reports are simply facts - facts, however, that the press ignores.
He's worth a read, but don't submit to the temptation to treat everything he says as gospel (he warns against this himself).
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Bereta_Eder
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makes some interesting points. read with a critical eye, as you would do with anything really.
a bit off topic, his personality has changed a lot the past few years. according to some greek journalists who met him and interviewed him he seems to believe he's an authenticity of some sort. they were quite offput by his arrogance and absolutism in the way he talked. I'd just thought I'd point that out. I don't know if he was always like that.
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Rufus T. Firefly
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is one way of saying it, though I prefer "mensch"
Sep 2000
time: 07:28
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Chomsky's work on media can be strident, one-note, and border on conspiracy theory. But his central thesis is, for my money, dead on. Among the points he makes: that the media is fundamentally conservative, because (1) it is a business first -- increasingly a big business -- and one whose first obligation is to other businesses (i.e., advertisiers), not the public -- which makes it incapapble of opposing big business or free-market capitalism in any consistent way; (2) the cost of news-gathering has made the media more and more reliant on "sources" (like government officials) to provide them with news, and thus made them increasingly unwilling to alienate their sources by criticizing them; (3) the structure of journalistic careers is such that the biggest plums -- the White House press corps, for example -- go to people who are good at getting "access" to what they are covering -- which means, again, people who are actually liked by the organizations they are suppoised to be "objectively" covering; that "official Washington" is really a small town, where politicians and the journalists who are supposed to be scrutinizing them live next door to each other, go to the same dinner parties, send their kids to the same schools, date, marry, etc., creating bonds of loyalty between politicians and journalist that override the pretense of objectivity.
As I said, Chomsky can go way over he top on these matters. But for a reasoned, well-documented, well-argued introduction to these ideas, check out Manufacturing Consent, co-authored by Chomsky and Edward Herman. The first chapter should give you a provocative introduction to what he's all about.
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12-06-2003 03:35
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Why? He's usually anti-government, so he can't be all bad.
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