The role of the state

William S. Lear rael at zopyra.com
Sun Oct 11 07:41:15 PDT 1998


On Fri, October 9, 1998 at 22:44:58 (EDT) JKSCHW at aol.com writes:
> .... My point
>about Chomsky was that apart from a few odd essays and interviews where he
>defends anarchism, you wouldn't know that he's an anarchist. ...

This is quite different than what you were represented to have said. If you don't think that "Chomsky's 'anarchism' is a pretense" (Alex LoCascio's representation of what you said), then I hereby release you from the clueless appellation I bestowed upon you.


> .... The bulk of his
>very substantial practical intellectaul and political work is the defense of
>the welfare state and greater government control over the economy in the face
>of the free market (so called). ...

This is a bit sloppy, so I'll have to object. If you mean that you will find a defense of the welfare state, etc., in far more of his pieces than you do expositions of his anarchist beliefs, then you are quite correct. But, the great bulk of his political writing is more concerned with the lies used by the powerful to protect their actions from scrutiny and how the media aids in spreading the lies. It is only fairly recently that Chomsky has been intensely concerned with the dismantling of the welfare state and the trumpeting of the free market.


> .... Few, however, are as
>ardent defenders of the liberal social-democratic welfare state as Chomsky.
>Mind you, I think that liberal social democratic welfare state woulld bea
>good idea. Wish we had one here.

You realize, I hope, with what distaste he defends the liberal social-democratic welfare state. He does so because, contrary to Jim Baird's claim, he thinks the corporations, the state, the media, etc. *are* the cage (not outside of it), and that since destroying the cage is at present not possible, he concentrates on expanding the floor of the cage.

Bill



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