Chomsky and Hero Worship

[Peter Kilander]

Frankly, I'm surprised by the criticisms I've read here about Chomsky and
also by Proyect's dissing of Ehrenreich.  It reminds me of an old joke:
"What do you get when you sit 3 IRA members down at a table? A schism." One
of the things that led me down the prim rose path to far-leftism/radicalism
was reading an interview with Chomsky in Rolling Stone magazine back in '92.
Chomsky's anarchism coupled with a defense of the welfare state seperates
him from the right-wing libertarian critique. I guess this also
differentiates him from Alexander Cockburn's and Andrew Kopkind's alleged
"catastrophism" -the worse things get, the better; I forget the other term
for this- although I first heard this charge on this list and still don't
know whether to believe it. Ehrenreich has recently said that with the
ending of welfare, the state no longer deserves any support.

As for Chomsky's lack of specific solutions or blueprint for a socialist
society, something in common with Doug, he has repeatedly said that a mass
movement will come up with and try and discard policies as it gains power. A
wise recognition of the value of democracy and of how different
circumstances require different tactics. Blaming Chomsky and Ehrenreich for
the lack of a viable movement is like blaming the messenger. He has said he
was disappointed with the way the film "Manufacturing Consent" focused on
him. If forced to guess I would say people's real problems with Chomsky are
his high visability and the Marxist distaste for anarchists.

An illuminating passage from a book on Chomsky: "In fact, Chomsky dislikes
the term 'Marxism'. For him, terms such as 'Marxism' and 'Freudian' belong
to the history of organized religion. A human being, 'no matter how gifted,
will make some contributions intermingled with error and partial
understanding'. The correct attitude is to try to 'understand and improve on
their contributions and eliminate the errors'. Identifying yourself as a
Marxist or a Freudian is to treat someone as a god to be revered, not as a
human being whose contributions is to be assimilated and transcended. This
is 'a crazy idea, a kind of idolatry.'"

Personally I have no problem with people saying they're Marxist. It's
shorthand. Just as when we discuss "Chomsky," often it's shorthand for his
ideas and body of work. Also, I've heard Chomsky describe corporations as
fascist, a misnomer in my opinion.

Peter