From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Mon May 31 2004 - 14:55:28 BST
Hi Anthony, Platt, and all,
ant said:
I’ve carried out a brief internet search for the academic credentials
of the people who you [Platt] noted (on May 5th) as believing Chomsky
to be a ‘Communist flack’ (such as Anders G. Lewis, J.D. Cassidy,
Keith Windschuttle, Nick Cohen and Pejman Yousefzadeh) and have had
little luck.
msh suggests:
What you will discover when you read these folks is that they never
engage directly with Chomsky's ideas and documentation; rather, they
point out the failures and horrors of communism, then point to
Chomsky and his criticism of American policy and say "See, he's a
Communist flack." The logical flaw is blatant, I hope, and not
worthy of additional comment.
I would suggest that anyone who really wants to know what Chomsky
says, should simply read some Chomsky and check references for
themselves. The guy's written, what, 70-80 books?
ant said:
Of course, much of Chomsky’s credibility comes down to the accuracy
of his factual statements. Though no doubt it includes errors (as
does all intellectual work), the majority of his statements
concerning American Foreign policy chimed in...
msh says:
Yes. And it's not a bad idea to make a distinction between Chomsky's
informal talks and interviews (hundreds a year), and his published
scholarly analyses. The former may, rarely in my experience, include
misremembered details, misstatements, mistakes: The man is only
human. The later are remarkably accurate, well-argued, and well-
documented, to a degree of consistency rarely achieved in even the
most prestigious academic journals.
The reason for this is that Chomsky knows any factual error he makes,
regardless of its triviality, will be blown out of proportion by the
likes of the critics named above, and used to attack his broader
ideas. On the other hand, if his theses contained the traditional
pieties, "Capitalism good, communism bad, Castro bad, free market
good, Hussein evil, US democratizing Iraq", his views would be
accepted for broadcast and publication without the slightest bit of
evidence.
ant continued:
Over the weekend, I did read some of the internet articles by Anders
G. Lewis, J.D. Cassidy, Keith Windschuttle and Nick Cohen. As far as
these stand, they seem to concentrate on the failings of so-called
communist countries (such as China) as if this is an argument against
the failings noted by Chomsky of so-called free market economies.
msh says:
See. And see above.
ant said:
Moreover, it appears that the MOQ avoids the gumption trap of allying
oneself too closely with the political left or right and hence
blinding oneself from the wider picture...
msh says:
And Chomsky downplays, even disdains, the use of the terms "left" and
"right" for the same reason.
ant ended with:
Finally, I better mention that when you discuss Chomsky's attack on
intellectuals (as being mere "acolytes of the systems of power") you
are conflating the social status of being an “intellectual” with the
intellectual status of intellectual patterns.
msh says:
Yep. Exactly. Thanks.
I would add also that Platt's attack of Chomksy for referring to
polls is without foundation. Chomsky has never used polls to "prove"
his argument. He's repeatedly pointed out that the results of polls
are easily manipulated by the ways in which questions are formulated.
So if you ask "Do you support our troops" you'll get a vastly
different response than if you ask a more meaningful question like
"Do you support America's occupation of Iraq?"
I think Chomsky would say that polls, asking meaningful questions,
can be useful in determining general public opinion, and might be the
starting point for further investigation. For example, when polls
reveal that 65% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was behind
the 9/11 attacks, it might be worth looking into why they've come to
this erroneous opinion. You'll then learn about thing like the role
commercial media played in whipping up support for the invasion of
Iraq.
Thanks, and best to all,
Mark Steven Heyman
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