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Chomsky Speaks on US Imperialism
Noam Chomsky delivered the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture to a packed crowd on Thursday.
According to Noam Chomsky, all U.S. leaders are schizophrenic.
Students had to be turned away from Thursday’s event featuring the famed linguist Noam Chomsky, as the room filled up to three times its capacity. Chomsky gave the Edward Said lecture. (Jawad Bhatti / Staff photographer) Chomsky, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, came to Columbia on Thursday to discuss
hypocrisy and "schizophrenia" in American foreign policy from the early
settlers to George W. Bush.
Chomsky, often considered one of the fathers of modern linguistics, is also well known for his controversial criticism of the United States' actions in international politics.
At the fifth annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture hosted by the Heyman Center for the Humanities, Chomsky began his speech on "The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism" by applauding Said for calling attention to America's culture of imperialism. Said, a cultural critic and literary scholar who taught at Columbia for about three decades, died in 2003.
Though America just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chomsky said the commemoration ignored a glaring human rights violation that occurred only one week after the wall fell. On November 16, 1989, a U.S.-armed Atlacatl battalion assassinated six leading Latin American Jesuit priests, he explained.
Chomsky contrasted America's self-congratulation of the Berlin Wall destruction with the resounding silence that surrounds the assassination of these priests.
He said that this was just one example of the many stains on America's foreign policy record. Chomsky criticized the U.S. for its role in the continuing conflicts in the Middle East. Alluding to the wall dividing Israel and Gaza, he stressed the need to "dismantle the massive wall ... now snaking through Palestinian territory in violation of international law."
Discussing the United States as an international player, he said, "To this day, the U.S. is reverentially admired as a city on a hill." Chomsky characterized this as an imperialist policy, "a conception that we are carrying out God's will in mysterious ways."
He argued that the U.S. sacrifices democratic principles for its own self-interest, and tends to "focus a laser light on the crimes of enemies, but crucially we make sure to never look at ourselves."
Democracy, he said, is "supported if it defends the strategic and economic objectives of the United States."
Akeel Bilgrami, director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities, said in an e-mail prior to the event that they were honored to have Chomsky return for a fourth visit. "He is one of the greatest figures of public conscience of the last century," Bilgrami said, adding that, in linguistics and philosophy, Chomsky "single-handedly generated a revolution in the subject."
Bilgrami noted that the Heyman Center's choice of speakers does not necessarily reflect its political views. He said, "To some extent, the choice of speakers and interests over the years have reflected the progressive, humanistic, politically radical possibilities in the study of the humanities but it has never been a political platform" and explained that any sort of agenda would "cancel out other voices and points of view."
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123 Comments so far
Show AllChomsky is a smarter hero.
Hey, Prof. Chomsky was at a memorial lecture for the late great Edward Said, yet not a word about Prof. Said in these many posts below? Or am I missing something?
Culture and Imperialism by Said is a landmark for the linguistic correlary of Chomsky's observations. Said looks at imperialism as presented in western literature. The impact of the background/storytelling implicit in the novel illustrates the 'sea' of imperialism thinking.
Another perspective by Linda Tuhiwai Smith "Decolonizing Methodologies" looks at western research
The power brokers are like the pharmaceutical researchers that study inmates through a one way mirror while hiding in the spy room.
The garrisoned world of the new world order is not so much a prison, as a gigantic mental ward, where everyone is medicated and the telivision is always blaring in the day room and any sign of resistance is anticipated as the sympom of some disease.
While the craziest, most deranged paranoids run the nurse station.
Its trickle down schizophrenia! No its not! Yes it is...
When he speaks about Tiger Woods the propaganda infotainment media will listen & report 24/7.
Who?
Because Chomsky accurately describes and analyzes U.S. imperialism, he will never be allowed on mainstream, corporate, imperialist media, especially MSNBC (owned for now by G.E., which brings good things to death).
ED, I once saw Chomsky on Charlie Rose and the show was hysterical if not chilling for its demonstration of why real debate is next to impossible in the mainstream--in media or in government. Among other things, Rose's assumptions prevented him not only from understanding what Chomsky was saying, but even from having the remotest idea of Chomsky's perspective, illustrating what he says about the assumptions drilled into students by American education, particularly at universities in the sacrosanct Ivy League. Chomsky told him he was asking the wrong questions. He might as well have been speaking Greek.
It's an interesting phenomenon, isn't it?
Rose's sudden inability to parse what seemed like simple sentences is hardly unusual in his interviewers, either. Not just many but most criticisms here on CD, as elsewhere, bear little recognizable relationship to his actual stated opinions, and it's not like the man has left no record.
Denial may be the biggest factor, but I think there's a matter of form that deserves examination. We humans confront the world as a neurally mediated collage of category models; we manipulate the categories, and we predict.
Among these categories are words and their constructs - wonderfully nuanced but perennially unstable tools. One may share many words with little feel for what one's fellow means by a certain phrase or even how one's fellow understands the act of phrasing - not a universal concept between cultures, I find.
Even Charlie Rose's program, though it does far better than most of what TV blasts around, does not provide someone like Rose with enough time to adjust his bearings to a vocabulary that cuts phenomena closer to the joints than does his own.
I thought for some time that multimedia itself determined an approach dominated by telegraphic messages and soundbytes, but the recent popularity of podcast lectures has proven me wrong. It seems the marketing structure of TV as owned in the US, and the high ante of analog film production were more salient flaws.
A room mate left. Another follows. I may get to silence the last TV in the house.
( w h e w )
notice how the mainstream media quit covering the tillman family when they began talking about how their relative pat was about to meet with noam chomsky to discuss pat's reservations about the war in iraq. they and pat fell right off the media monitor after that bit of unsettling truth came out. the mainstream media tremble before chomsky, like vampires seeing the shadow of a crucifix in a blazing sun!
Ignorance among the people plays a huge part. The people don't know how they will make it after the revolution. If the people knew they would thrive after removing elite control of the economy they would join the revolution in a second.
In my current state of mind, I'm thinking of Noam Chomsky in terms of how he reminds me of the great "Enlightenment" thinker and writer Voltaire.
I regularly return in my thoughts to the truth found in Voltaire's "Candide".
With all of his knowledge and insight, I think Chomsky could write one of the greatest satires of human history.
I really, really, think he could delightfully and delicately skewer, cook, and serve a most delicious, many course, source of sustenance.
He deserves the fun.
Voltaire. Yes, interesting comparison. Chomsky is a bit 'dry' for satire, though, don't you think?
Cervantes, Swift, Voltaire and Twain...much can be learned from reading their words.
Cervantes?
"With all of his knowledge and insight, I think Chomsky could write one of the greatest satires of human history."
All his knowledge and insight: The USA is an imperialist nation. Language and media are used to manipulate masses of people into surrendering power to an oligarchy.
Maybe he could write THE INTRODUCTION to one of the greatest satires in recent history.
Indeed, a Swiftian treatment by Chomsky would be most welcome. However, he does have "fun," make no mistake. He answered my question (1994), "what do you do for fun?" by saying, "well, I enjoy research (smile) and I enjoy spending time with my grandchildren, gardening, and sailing, for instance..."
When Chomsky says that Democracy is supported if it defends the strategic and economic objectives of the U.S. he was correct, but I would also add: dictators,thugs and fascists are also supported if they defend the strategic and economic policys of the U.S.
When Chomsky says 'Democracy' he means Hypocracy.
Many USans are relieved to discover that others besides themselves see the USA's real agenda as not democracy but capitalism. But these USans continue to live as black sheep.
Great Man = Noam Chomsky
Chomsky is an Intellectual of the highest order in a Nation of Buffoons & Balkies!
WizardLeft 1999."CHOMSKY -----nation of buffoons"DELUSIONAL TODAY ARE WE?
Hi et al, I was recently explaining to friend from Japan how much young black man, and Latinos were murdered by white policemen in the sixties and beyond. I when further to say the "white" meaning European cultures have murdered Natives Americans, South Americans. Filipinos, Africans, Caribbean’s, and bombed Japan a country of color. I got the first impression he thought I was a racist????
American has convinced the world they are the good guys. Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse, and Disney world have won the battle of the minds. Norm Chomsky says speaks truth, and nothing else. American is indeed, paranoid and schizophrenic and few care to realize this fact.
--"European cultures have murdered Natives Americans, South Americans. Filipinos, Africans, Caribbean’s, and bombed Japan a country of color."
Let me also add India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, China, MiddleEast, FarEAst .... there are no cultures around that have not been dominated and oppressed for centuries by White Europeans. Fortunately thats in the past and unfortunately a lot of that same behaviour is present in our country as well today.
Imperialism these days however takes many forms from economic to cultural contexts as well as the more familiar military occupations and conquest which makes it infinitely more complex and dangerous.
There are a whole lot of free Chomsky lectures (mp3 format) available at www.radio4all.net
Just do a search for "Chomsky" ... or Zinn or Arundhati Roy or Vandana Shiva, or "Unwelcome Guests" or WIlliam Blum etc etc...
Lots of Chomsky's stuff vla bit torrent on this left-torrent site:
wwww.onebigtorrent.org
While there, consider downloading the ducu-lecture film "Capitalism and other Kids Stuff - on page 2 or 3 of the main list. It is well-seeded right now. Bit torrent fle sharing is solidarity-enhancing, the more the peers participate and cooperate, the faster the file downloads.
Chomsky gets far greater attendance at his lectures than any Palin appearance. One would never know this from the corporate media, though.
Prof Chomsky is showing his age in the year since the death, after a long illness, of his his wife of almost 60 years, Carol. He will turn 81 on Monday. December 19 will be the first anniversary of Carol's death.
He will be 82 on Mon., Dec. 7th.
Not to be pedantic, but on Dec 7th, he will start his 82nd year, but he will have his 81st birthday. He was born on Dec 7th 1928.
According to the eastern way of dating, one's birth is one's first birthday, literally.
CHOMSKY ---- OBAMA WAR PRIZE
"The Nobel Peace Prize, of course, is not concerned solely with reducing the threat of terminal nuclear war, but rather with war generally, and preparation for war. In this regard, the selection of Obama raised more than a few eyebrows, not least in Iran, surrounded by US occupying armies.
US military expenditures almost match the rest of the world combined, and the US military is far more advanced technologically. Nonpartisan budget and security monitors report that the Obama “administration’s request for $538 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2010 and its stated intention to maintain a high level of funding in the coming years put the president on track to spend more on defense, in real dollars, than any other president has in one term of office since World War II.
And that's not counting the additional $130 billion the administration is requesting to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, with even more war spending slated for future years.” Hundreds of US military bases blanket the world, and there has been no move to abandon the plan to move from control of space for military purposes, Clinton’s stand, to “ownership of space” for these purposes, the Bush escalation. There has been near unanimous global opposition to these plans since they were made explicit in the Clinton years."
Damn, that man's looking old. That's frightening. He's only 80. I hope we don't lose him any time soon :-(((((
See my 3:13 remark above (or below), in response to actually at 1:21. The loss of a spouse of almost 60 yyears is rough on a person.
That's certainly true, but usually it manifests in psychological rather than physical stigmata.
Not so. Losing a spouse kills plenty of people, and let's hope that purpose and support keep him whole.
Frankly, I think he's looking pretty good, though. There aren't a lot of 80-year-olds with international speaking schedules. We may be lucky and have him alive and in arms for a good while.
i can't think of a thing that changes a person's appearance more than their mental state. Grief certainly accelerates aging.
Chomsky tells the TRUTH. For example: the democratic government of Hoduras was overthrown by coup. At first we urged the restoration of the legal government of Zelaya but reversed ourselves and supported hie illegal replacement.
Indeed, that is why folks who speak truth and ask the fundamental questions are whitelisted and banned from the corporate media. Chomsky ought to be a regular commentator on the PBS Newshour, for example. He ought to have a regular column in the NYT. I have never seen him on US television, has anybody?
He was on Posner Donahue quite a few years ago, and he was on Nghtline ONCE. You can catch some of his talks on Democracy Now! and at BookTV.
Nightline? wow that must have been when I was a kid, thanks for the info. I have seen and heard him many times on Pacifica radio stations, D Now! and on DVD. I was just curious if anyone had seen him on mainstream television or newspapers.
Mr. Chomsky's not on mainstream media cuz he makes the kids lose their appetites for the material opiates.
C-Span, once. A few years back. It's probably downloadable. Try www.chomsky.info or perhaps www.onebigtorrent.com.
Viva Noam!
Our leaders invoke 9/11, their answer to everything
--oil and gas, is my answer to everything.
dr wu "viva Noam!" as much as I admire you Dr Wu,did something get lost in the translation? read between Noams lines.He is a bit of a fakester!Maybe even a prankster!
I was honoured to see and hear Mr. Chomsky speak at the University of Prince Edward Island in the late 80's. He autographed a pair of books he authored about American foreign policy, published by Black Rose Books of Montreal. No American publisher would touch them because they were critical of U.S. actions in Viet Nam and elsewhere. I had heard of the books through Amnesty International. Sadly, nothing has changed for the better since then. We Canadians have our own Reagan - Bush clone in the figure of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an embarassment to his country.
i'm regularly warning my own sister and her family - for becoming canadian citizens from asia - to BEWARE of such people and ideologies espoused - as those by harper and "conservatives". unless they want to see canada become more and more like the USA. I tell her :
"the reason YOU are all enjoying being canadian citizens and proud of it - is because of what was built in canada that is the OPPOSITE of what this harper and the conservatives try to achieve...for THAT alone - part of your loyalty to canada for granting you citizenship is to uphold the things that the HARPERS will try to DESTROY".
WOW On PEI in the 80's! I wish I knew of him then but I wasn't much into world politics in grade school. Now that's something I would've flaunted to my neo-con friends!
Article about American imperialism on target, especially in light of the recent overt Afghanistan escalation. One wonders what imperialistic covert policies are in play.
Dear Professor Chomsky, please don't use the label "schizophrenic" in relation to persons holding simultaneous split views. Schizophrenia is a serious cluster of mental illnesses that devastates those with the disease and their loved ones. It has nothing to do with split personalitiy or polarized thinking. I further noted your talk title--The Unipolar Moment . . . I am always astounded that learned people are so cavalier in using psychiatric diagnoses to describe the behaviors of the so-called "sane."
His field is psycholinguistics, not clinical. I'm sure he was using the term casually, the way people now thoughtlessly say "suspicious" when they mean "súspect".
I wish I had a dollar for every time I've patiently explained to someone that schizophrenia doesn't mean what they think it means, only to watch their eyes glaze over like a defunct fish's.
(unintended dupe)
Though you didn't mean it as such, I find this little post rather amusing, in light of the subject matter of the article.
There are a lot of unintended dupes in America.
Chomsky is the antidote.
Funny you should say that, because every time I go to type that phrase, I think of exactly that (dupe=someone who has been duped) meaning. My next thought is always "should I spell it 'dup'?", and finally with slight irritation conclude that the 'e' is require to prevent it being pronounced 'dupp'. It's amusing that I go through that exact sequence each time - perhaps some day I'll arrive at a different conclusion.