Chomsky and Hero Worship

michael perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Fri Oct 9 18:18:09 PDT 1998


Bill Lear wrote:


> Chomsky is very well read in economic matters, and though Michael
> Perelman claims to have heard Chomsky make a slight error on one occasion, I
> find his economic foundations to be quite solid.

My experience was sheparding Chomsky around Chico for a couple of days. Wow! I heard a few minor slips on economic matters, but I am supposed to be a professional economist. He does not pretend to be.

Let me tell you about his schedule. I pick him up in the morning. We have three 1 1/2 hours seminars: One on current events, one on the media, and one on linguistics and philosophy. He held is own with professionals in all these disciplines. Then dinner with a bunch of local activists. Then an evening talk; then a social and I take him back to his apartment just before midnight. I pick him up the next morning and he is talking about the books that he read that night. We ran into several people, a few were students, who came up to him to speak about their previous correspondence with him. He recalled them and their letters. Later he told me that he spends several hours a day on such correspondence.

I cannot imagine anybody else in the world with the agility to move from one field to another.

-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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