Editor’s note: please forgive my recent absence from this blog; I’ve been laid up with a winter cold, the coughing from which messed up my old lady trick back. In between feeling like crap and complaining about being awake or moving, I managed to bang out just under 12K words about corporate media attempts to associate Bernie Sanders with violence against women. You can fine Part One here, and Part Two here.
Today I thought I’d ease back into the flow of things by posting something breezy, personal and extremely straightforward; primarily because my brain is essentially a twitching Slurpee after spending two straight weeks studying corporate media ratf*cking in US politics exclusively. “Be careful when hunting monsters...” yada, yada.
Today’s quotation is short, sweet and totally self explanatory - it comes from one of those Noam Chomsky compilations that combines a few chapters of text from previously published material with some transcribed interviews with or letters written by Chomsky. In this particular case, the book in question is “Chomsky: On Anarchism” and the passage comes from a March 22, 2002 interview with Harry Kreisler.
While as a general rule, most pinkos I know will have at least a passing grasp of both socialist theory and some aspects of the historical record of left wing movements and ideology in the west; frankly however, very few of my influences and peers are equally specialized in both. Indeed, I find that most left wing scholars or essayists are either heavy consumers of left wing political and social theory, or heavy consumers of left wing historical writing; while trending towards merely “doing the required reading” for their non-preferred focus.
I mention this primarily as a way of explaining what I really like about Noam Chomsky’s work as a whole - the fact that he seamlessly blends theoretical discussions with historical examples presented from an accurate (and typically, very left wing) perspective. This fusion of the two major streams of left wing scholarship would make Chomsky an important writer on the left even if he wasn’t also considered one of America’s leading intellectuals. Chomsky truly is a national treasure and every time he even so much as sneezes in public, I find myself worrying about what we’re going to do when he is finally gone.
With that having been noted however, I have long since moved beyond my adolescent hero-worship of Noam and insistence that he represents some sort of barometer for all left wing views. Indeed, after years of reading his work and following his statements in public appearances, where I think Chomsky fails as a writer is in a role that he himself will tell you he’s never asked for, that of “moral compass” and “arbiter of truth” in left wing literature, media studies and academic discourse.
The lesson as always is that you can learn a lot from those who have come before you, but nobody is infallible - it’s better for the clear-eyed, honest pinko scholar to have influences, rather than heroes.
