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Chomsky for Activists
Those who regard him as a “doom and gloom” critic will find an unexpected Chomsky in these pages. Here the world-renowned author speaks for the first time in depth about his career in activism, and his views and tactics. Chomsky offers new and intimate details about his life-long experience as an activist, revealing him as a critic with deep convictions and many surprising insights about movement strategies. The book points to new directions for activists today, including how the crises of the Coronavirus and the economic meltdown are exploding in the critical 2020 US presidential election year. Readers will find hope and new pathways toward a sustainable, democratic world.
- GenresPolitics
223 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 30, 2020
12 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
Noam Chomsky
978 books17.4k followersAvram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 8, 2021
In 1965, when an anti-war event on Boston Commons was flooded with counter-demonstrators, the liberal papers denounced the demonstrators. Liberal Congress back then (even Mike Mansfield who was anti-war later) was denouncing demonstrators. Even Tip O’Neill wouldn’t let Noam and Howard Zinn into his office back then. In the late 60’s Noam was giving sometimes a half dozen anti-war talks per day. After the Tet Offensive, Johnson wanted a few more hundred thousand troops in Vietnam but “the joint chiefs were opposed because they said they would need them for civil disorder control in the US”. Needed, because those non-violent anti-war protestors at Kent State and around the US campuses weren’t going to shoot themselves, by themselves.
During the 30’s, Texaco stopped selling oil to the Spanish Republic and began selling only to the Spanish fascists. After the Spanish Civil War, the US conceded that it had tacitly supported fascist Franco; so much for the patriotic theory that during WWII, the US fought first against fascism. FDR was verbally upset about a few rifles being sold to Republicans, but note he said not a discouraging word about Texaco boldly selling to clear fascists. Britain invades Greece in 1944 and takes it over, and Churchill gives orders to treat Athens as a conquered city. Britain’s job was to destroy the anti-fascist resistance there; fascism being highly preferential for Churchill over the slightest hint of communism. Anti-Japanese propaganda was extreme, Germans were treated as Aryan love gods next to the Japanese who were treated like “vermin”.
During WWI, “something like 1% of the world Jewish population” was Zionist. In 1942, the movement towards a Jewish state was opposed “by many Zionists”. In 1946, “about 25% of the Jews in Palestine were opposed to a Jewish state. So, it was not negligible.” “The lesson of Zionism is “Don’t say what you are doing, just do it.” “Just take a piece here and there – but do it quietly. The actual terminology is so that the Goyim don’t notice. That’s been very effective. It’s still going on.”
Super cool was finding out Noam wrote an article in 1948 supporting my grandpa Henry Wallace running for President. Noam continues, “I wrote it in Arabic, because I was learning Arabic at the time. I wish I still had it.” So, do I. Once, Howard Zinn gave me a super cool photo of himself introducing my grandpa in 1948. But Noam writing about him in Arabic would be next level.
If you look at Trump supporters, quite a few had before voted for Obama but “they pretty quickly find out they’re not getting hope and they’re not getting change.” The problem with minimum wage is that it flattened (otherwise it would be around $20) yet “it’s now considered revolutionary to call for $15 an hour.” Neoliberalism is “designed to set working people into competition with one another all over the world while protecting professional elites.” The Democratic party has to bring up class issues if it wants to win. There are committed environmentalists on the Right who want to end the EPA. You can’t say I can’t fish in this river and then you do nothing about the chemical plants? Democrats have to do something about the chemical plants to get extra votes. CEO’s aren’t threatened by gay rights, they are threatened by labor rights. Identity politics must not cut out class politics. The common issue today is that “we are destroying the possibility for organized human life to persist.” Houston is interesting to watch because it has no regulations “so you have a disaster when anything comes.” George Kennan was the head of US Consul in Berlin up to Pearl Harbor; George was an apologist for the Nazis then because they, like George, hated labor and communists. Mussolini had been given a free pass basically because the Italian trains ran on time. Leland Stanford, who created Stanford, made his money “by vicious exploitation of Chinese workers who were kidnapped from China and built the railroads.” Noam thinks instead of removing statues you should teach people. Cuba’s crimes: First, Being the Threat of a Good Example, then, “successful defiance” of US demands.
Alan Greenspan when talking to Congress and explaining the great Clinton economy included “growing worker insecurity”. The biggest war crimes done by the US in North Korea (bombing dams, destroying rice and valleys) were referred to at the time “with a real glee” by the Air Force Quarterly Journal. Talking about how crazy Trump is, is a waste of time, “His role is (was) to take attention from what is going on.” Capitalists on both sides of the aisle know “that there is no profit to be made preparing for a catastrophic crisis.” “Contrary to general belief, the United States does enjoy universal health care. It is called ‘emergency rooms’ required by law to treat everyone who can make it there, the most cruel, expensive and inefficient form of ‘Medicare for all’.” When the Right says government is the problem, the reason is that government “is still under some public influence” while what would replace government would be “private tyrannies.” The Libertarian principle is that “the rich man and the poor man must be equally free to sleep under the bridge at night.” Libertarian Milton Friedman himself explained how the concern of private power is not public good, but pure greed. Libertarian big wigs Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek “welcomed the vicious Pinochet dictatorship with enthusiasm.”
At the end of the book, Medea Benjamin echoes my feelings exactly when she says that it was Noam who made her finally understand US policy “how it was designed to crush any alternatives.” And Noam made her understand her understand how once each of us gets self-educated and can do the analysis, we must take action. Well said, Medea. As fund advisor, this book was one of my grants to Noam a few years back, so I was glad to finally read what I funded.
During the 30’s, Texaco stopped selling oil to the Spanish Republic and began selling only to the Spanish fascists. After the Spanish Civil War, the US conceded that it had tacitly supported fascist Franco; so much for the patriotic theory that during WWII, the US fought first against fascism. FDR was verbally upset about a few rifles being sold to Republicans, but note he said not a discouraging word about Texaco boldly selling to clear fascists. Britain invades Greece in 1944 and takes it over, and Churchill gives orders to treat Athens as a conquered city. Britain’s job was to destroy the anti-fascist resistance there; fascism being highly preferential for Churchill over the slightest hint of communism. Anti-Japanese propaganda was extreme, Germans were treated as Aryan love gods next to the Japanese who were treated like “vermin”.
During WWI, “something like 1% of the world Jewish population” was Zionist. In 1942, the movement towards a Jewish state was opposed “by many Zionists”. In 1946, “about 25% of the Jews in Palestine were opposed to a Jewish state. So, it was not negligible.” “The lesson of Zionism is “Don’t say what you are doing, just do it.” “Just take a piece here and there – but do it quietly. The actual terminology is so that the Goyim don’t notice. That’s been very effective. It’s still going on.”
Super cool was finding out Noam wrote an article in 1948 supporting my grandpa Henry Wallace running for President. Noam continues, “I wrote it in Arabic, because I was learning Arabic at the time. I wish I still had it.” So, do I. Once, Howard Zinn gave me a super cool photo of himself introducing my grandpa in 1948. But Noam writing about him in Arabic would be next level.
If you look at Trump supporters, quite a few had before voted for Obama but “they pretty quickly find out they’re not getting hope and they’re not getting change.” The problem with minimum wage is that it flattened (otherwise it would be around $20) yet “it’s now considered revolutionary to call for $15 an hour.” Neoliberalism is “designed to set working people into competition with one another all over the world while protecting professional elites.” The Democratic party has to bring up class issues if it wants to win. There are committed environmentalists on the Right who want to end the EPA. You can’t say I can’t fish in this river and then you do nothing about the chemical plants? Democrats have to do something about the chemical plants to get extra votes. CEO’s aren’t threatened by gay rights, they are threatened by labor rights. Identity politics must not cut out class politics. The common issue today is that “we are destroying the possibility for organized human life to persist.” Houston is interesting to watch because it has no regulations “so you have a disaster when anything comes.” George Kennan was the head of US Consul in Berlin up to Pearl Harbor; George was an apologist for the Nazis then because they, like George, hated labor and communists. Mussolini had been given a free pass basically because the Italian trains ran on time. Leland Stanford, who created Stanford, made his money “by vicious exploitation of Chinese workers who were kidnapped from China and built the railroads.” Noam thinks instead of removing statues you should teach people. Cuba’s crimes: First, Being the Threat of a Good Example, then, “successful defiance” of US demands.
Alan Greenspan when talking to Congress and explaining the great Clinton economy included “growing worker insecurity”. The biggest war crimes done by the US in North Korea (bombing dams, destroying rice and valleys) were referred to at the time “with a real glee” by the Air Force Quarterly Journal. Talking about how crazy Trump is, is a waste of time, “His role is (was) to take attention from what is going on.” Capitalists on both sides of the aisle know “that there is no profit to be made preparing for a catastrophic crisis.” “Contrary to general belief, the United States does enjoy universal health care. It is called ‘emergency rooms’ required by law to treat everyone who can make it there, the most cruel, expensive and inefficient form of ‘Medicare for all’.” When the Right says government is the problem, the reason is that government “is still under some public influence” while what would replace government would be “private tyrannies.” The Libertarian principle is that “the rich man and the poor man must be equally free to sleep under the bridge at night.” Libertarian Milton Friedman himself explained how the concern of private power is not public good, but pure greed. Libertarian big wigs Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek “welcomed the vicious Pinochet dictatorship with enthusiasm.”
At the end of the book, Medea Benjamin echoes my feelings exactly when she says that it was Noam who made her finally understand US policy “how it was designed to crush any alternatives.” And Noam made her understand her understand how once each of us gets self-educated and can do the analysis, we must take action. Well said, Medea. As fund advisor, this book was one of my grants to Noam a few years back, so I was glad to finally read what I funded.
May 28, 2021
This book is an essential addition to your Chomsky collection. It’s that clear.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews