Noam on AOLAOL Transcript 10/30/95
PhilCLU: Evening everyone. Welcome to the ACLU CenterStage series. I'm Phil Gutis, your ever-faithful host.
PhilCLU: I'm delighted to welcome Professor Noam Chomsky to our stage tonight. Let me take a few moments to introduce our guest and then we'll get started with your questions. This one, as they say, should be fun.
PhilCLU: An internationally heralded intellectual, prolific author, devout civil libertarian and anarchist, Professor Noam Chomsky is one of the most well known figures of our time. As a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows in the early fifties, the young Chomsky developed a structural theory of linguistics that greatly influenced that field. He continued to gain recognition as a young professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, the honorary degrees and awards he has won are too numerous to list.
PhilCLU: His most recent books include World Orders Old & New and Powers & Prospects Reflections on Human Nature.
PhilCLU: Please join me in welcoming Noam Chomsky to AOL. Our first question, as usual, comes from me: In your book "The Culture of Terrorism," Professor Chomsky, you expressed great skepticism about the role of government power. What do you think these days when you see both the Democrats and Republicans seeking ever increasing government powers?
NoamChmsky: The parties are actually seeking power in different ways. So the Republicans are trying to enhance their power through different ways. Through the Pentagon and other structures which were established or maintained as devices as a way of establishing power through technology. They are trying to cut back those areas of services that the Democrats hold as powerful.
PhilCLU: We're talking with Professor Noam Chomsky. Our next question comes from Craig0167.
Question: Mr. Chomsky: I am writing from Berkeley, CA where I am in graduate school and have had the opportunity to read several of your books and incorporate many of your ideas into my work. Most recently I read: Sec., lies, and Demo. My Q: Do you see the U.S. eventually breaking up into factions like those in the former Yugoslavia? thanks, Craig
NoamChmsky: I don't there are any imminent prospects of that in the United States. Though in Europe this truth is different.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Noam Chomsky comes from SPK96.
Question: What do see happening in black white relations in the next 5 years?
NoamChmsky: My feeling is that that is a topic we can not predict. There was a lot of progress 30 years ago, and then a lot of regression. We need to make sure that all people have opportunity.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Noam Chomsky comes from DWhite1974.
Question: Professor Chomsky, why do so many of our fellow citizens believe we go to war for such high-minded ideals as freedom and democracy when it's painfully obvious that empire and profit are what motivate us?
NoamChmsky: First point, it's not only true of our society, but of every society. Why people believe this is because of fear, propoganda, obedience and other emotions. Those who don't believe this find themselves in very serious trouble if they refuse to go along.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Noam Chomsky comes from Berserq.
Question: My question: do you accept or reject the principle of original intent as a valid method of constitutional interpretation? If no, why not?
NoamChmsky: Well, if we are asking what a particular person intended in a given day, then we should not accept it. But if it is based on what a person wanted to achieve, then we must look at what James Madison said. That is the problem with judicial interpretation.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Noam Chomsky comes from Merlin195.
Question: Prof. Chomsky, are you concerned about the impact of the Christian Coalition on govt, schools, etc.?
NoamChmsky: I think the Christian Coalition could be extremely dangerous. We should always be concerned when any group wants to impose their doctrinal concerns on all. To an extent that's what they are trying to do.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Noam Chomsky comes from Neural1.
Question: Prof. Chomsky: To go back to your linguistic background, what do you think of recent research by the Rumbaugh's concerning language in bonobo chimpanzee's like Kanzi and Matata.
NoamChmsky: They have done interesting work on certain reudamentery works of all primates. But it has about as much to do with humans as my being concerned with the fact I can walk or why an eagle flies. But in itself it does have certain interest.
PhilCLU: And now back to world affairs...The next question for Noam Chomsky comes from AdmJSG.
Question: What are your thoughts on the Quebec referendum?
NoamChmsky: Well I have not seen any news about the results. It looked as though it would be close. Though I see both sides, with the referendum, it would be a move towards colonization of Canada.
PhilCLU: Our next question is from Damion001.
Question: I feel that the recent criticism of talk shows is rather elitist, what's your view?
NoamChmsky: Well I have been on many different talk shows, it's hard to make a broad brush stroke about all of them. Though some do tend to be more elitist.
PhilCLU: The next question comes from a skeptic, JakobCQ.
Comment: I didn't think your response about the Christian Coalition was "intellectually honest." Isn't it the nature of politics for organized groups, like the NAACP or the ACLU to attempt to impose their will on others? Let's get serious.
NoamChmsky: Will is one thing, doctrinal controls something else. If the NAACP were to impose a control of something towards all, then I would staunchly oppose it.
PhilCLU: We're talking with famed MIT Professor Noam Chomsky. The next question comes from BBSprague.
Question: Professor Chomsky, how do you see online communication affecting linguistics and literacy in the forseeable future?
NoamChmsky: I don't think there is any serious chances it's affecting linguistics, but communications is a different subject. If it increases one's writting then thats one thing, but if it serves another purpose, then it has it's problems.
PhilCLU: Our next question is somewhat related and comes from YaxPac.
Question: Mr. Chomsky, what are your feelings about the existence of a USENET group devoted to you, alt.fan.noamchomsky?
NoamChmsky: Well I have heard there is such a thing, but I do not know about it. I do not know of it's content.
PhilCLU: Our next question is from another skeptic, JEricL.
Comment: Do you hate the USA, Noam? You seem to be in the Oliver Stone wing of the communist party to me sometimes.
NoamChmsky: I was a bitter enemy of the Communist party, and Oliver Stone and myself have disagreed many times. If you ask if I hate the US people, then I say no, but as for the government and some of the policies it has acted upon people then I disagree with it. The idea that Oliver Stone has anything to do with the Communist party is ridiculous.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Noam Chomsky comes from AFSCOLE.
Question: What is your reaction to the Unibomber manifesto? Do you believe his views on technology and the left have any merit?
NoamChmsky: The unibomer manifesto is a very strange amalgam of many different strange beliefs and ideas, there are elemenets of certain strains of the ultra-conservative right in it. With regard to technology, it is true that the manifesto is somewhat right. I believe technology can have many different ways of being used. It is usually neutral.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Chomsky comes from TJohns431.
Question: Are there any good arguments agianst making English the national Language of the U.S.? Isn't language the glue that holds our society together?
NoamChmsky: I think the glue that should hold our society is mutal respect and solidarity, and respect for others. Beliefs, religions, etc. But to impose by a state authority that upon others is unjust.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Chomsky comes from FSUer8.
Question: Why has the general pop. in the US had such a radical shift to the right just as the "hippie" generation reached their prime?
NoamChmsky: The general population has not shifted to the right at all. There is specific polls showing this. Medicare and Medicaid are good examples of those who disagree with the rights ideals. The one major increase in te budget that the GOP Congress has held up on is increasing the Pentagon budget. At the time of the November election, about 60% of the population was in favor of more social spending, and increasing the budget for use of education, medical care and environmental damage. We can continue on issue after issue.
PhilCLU: We're talking with Professor Noam Chomsky. The next question comes from Sources.
Question: Is it possible that Religion could ever become a more positive and healthy resource for humanity than it presently is?
NoamChmsky: I think religion has often played a very positive role. Take the western civilization, the Catholic Church has played an honorable role in helping those in need. In contrast, the US carried out a virtual war against the church in central America in the 1980's primarily because prime elements in the church were working with great courage and honor to help those in need. And to organize them to help themselves. It is more than symbolic that the decade opened with the assaination of an archbishop and ended with the murder of 6 Jesuit intellectuals, in both cases by military forces armed and trained by the US government.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Chomsky comes from Anarchy49.
Question: Greetings! Mr. Chomsky, what are your views on Anarchy, social or individual??
NoamChmsky: Anarchism has a very broad back, and has meant different things to different people. The leading idea, is that we should devote ourselves to discovering and identify areas of authority, from personal relations to large scale institutions, and ask if their authority should be justified. We should place the burden of justification on authoritarian institutions, if they can bare that, then they should be looked upon. These are the leading ideas that are coming to a broad range of anarchy.
PhilCLU: Our next question for Professor Chomsky comes from WandaDuc.
Question: Do you think that government is necessary? Do you think we may progress beyond the tyranny of majority rule?
NoamChmsky: I would be happy if there was majority rule. So the first thing is to progress to that. But what we have is rule by narrow minority that have succeeded in getting small amounts of power in their hands. As long as there are enormus private tryannies, that are unaccountable to the general public, a strong government that is at least accountable to the public at will is necessary for the advancement of fundamental rights. In a more free and democratic society in which private is dissolved, then big government should be broken down and decentralized, and possibly eliminated.
PhilCLU: Our last question for Professor Chomsky comes from Arrilon.
Question: Mr. Chmsky, Im a 2nd yr. law student who is an ACLU member out of our school chapter. How can the ACLU correct its image as an org. ready to stand up for civil and constitutional rights for anyone, not just the "liberals" in these conservative years?
NoamChmsky: The way the ACLU can correct that image is to show it as false, which it is. The ACLU in my many years of involvment has stood up for many, regardless of their political convictions, as it should be. In my view the ACLU is a conservative institution, one the few that merits the use of the term, that has been so debased in contempary use and practice.
PhilCLU: Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for tonight. Please join me in thanking Professor Noam Chomsky for joining us tonight. And, oh yes, Professor, Kevin who set up this event tonight and is a BIG fan says thanks too.
NoamChmsky: Thank you for raising provocative questions, and I hope we can pursue them in greater depth.
PhilCLU: Remember, everyone, to continue this discussion please join us in the Free Speech Zone and join us tomorrow when we debate whether the criminal justice system is racist with Marc Mauer.
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