Keyword: Noam Chomsky

American Socrates

Picture: Noam Chomsky at a conference in Germany in June 2013 courtesy Fazila Farouk/SACSIS. By Chris Hedges - CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Noam Chomsky, whom I interviewed last Thursday at his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has influenced intellectuals in the United States and abroad in incalculable ways. His explications of empire, mass propaganda, the hypocrisy and pliability of the liberal class and the failings of academics, as well as the way language is used as a mask by the power elite to prevent us from seeing reality, make him the most important intellectual in the country. The...

Noam Chomsky on the Legacy of Ariel Sharon: Not Speaking Ill of the Dead 'Imposes a Vow of Silence'

Picture: Helene C. Stikkel/Wikimedia Commons Video In an interview with Democracy Now! following the death of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who died on Saturday, world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and Institute Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Noam Chomsky says, "There is a convention that you’re not supposed to speak ill of the recently dead, which unfortunately imposes a kind of vow of silence, because there is nothing good to say. (Sharon) was a brutal killer; he had...

Obama's Trip to South Africa and Chomsky on American Power

Picture: Noam Chomsky moments before delivering a keynote address at the Deutsche Welle Fazila Farouk - United States (US) President, Barack Obama’s trip to South Africa is a contentious issue that has animated media reporting and provided the necessary ammunition to fire up a debate that pits left against right. On the one hand, we have the South African Communist Party, Cosatu and some of its affiliates, as well as student and Muslim organisations demanding answers from the US president for a foreign policy agenda that keeps the world trapped in a state of paranoid fear, while on the...

Noam Chomsky: The Kind of Anarchism I Believe In

Picture: Noam Chomsky courtesy Andrew Rusk/Flickr Michael S. Wilson - So many things have been written about, and discussed by, Professor Chomsky, it was a challenge to think of anything new to ask him: like the grandparent you can’t think of what to get for Christmas because they already have everything. So I chose to be a bit selfish and ask him what I’ve always wanted to ask him. As an out-spoken, actual, live-and-breathing anarchist, I wanted to know how he could align himself with such a controversial and marginal position....

Noam Chomsky Interview: Work, Learning and Freedom

Picture: Noam Chomsky (April 2011) courtesy Andrew Rusk/WikiMedia Commons. Michael Kasenbacher - In this often personal interview, renowned linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky outlines a libertarian perspective on work and education, arguing that freedom is the root of creativity and fulfilment.  MICHAEL KASENBACHER: The question I would like to ask is what is really wanted work? Maybe we could start with your personal life and your double career in linguistics and political activism? Do you like that kind of work? NOAM CHOMSKY: If I had the time I would spend far...

Who Owns the World? Noam Chomsky on US-Fueled Dangers, from Climate Change to Nuclear Weapons

Picture: As seen on Democracy Now! Video MIT professor, world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, Noam Chomsky examines topics largely ignored or glossed over in the election campaigns of American president Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney: China, the Arab Spring, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and the military threat posed by Israel and the US versus Iran. He reflects on the Cuban missile crisis, which took place 50 years ago and is still referred to as "the most dangerous...