Chomsky and Hero Worship

[John K. Taber]

William S. Lear wrote:
[snip]
> You also overlook that an analysis of the Russian nomenclatura would
> be almost entirely useless for Americans, Chomsky's principle
> audience.  He made it clear that he believed the Soviet Union to be a
> dungeon from top to bottom.  Wasting time on detailing the corruption
> of Soviet intellectuals would do nothing for us, as we had no way to
> pressure them to change, as we do here in limited but important ways.

Are you sure about this? It seems to me that there is a strong
resemblance between corporate governance and the Soviet nomenklatura.
Granted, we couldn't do much to change Soviets, but I thought an
analysis would help us understand ourselves.

-- 
I've been able to string more words into fewer ideas than anybody I
know, and I'm continuing to do that.

     - Alan Greenspan to the Senate Budget Committee, Sept 23, 1998