Chomsky on Madison

[William S. Lear]

On Thursday, March 30, 2000 at 23:53:57 (-0800) Brad De Long writes:
>>On Thursday, March 30, 2000 at 16:22:39 (-0800) Brad De Long writes:
>>>>Here's a quote a friend sent to me that is attributed to Dr. Chomsky.  I
>>>>thought it was kind of interesting so I'll pass it along.
>>>>
>>>>"... A couple of thousand years later, when our Founding Fathers 
>>>>were writing
>>>>
>>>>the Constitution, James Madison noticed the same problem, but whereas
>>>>Aristotle's preferred solution had been to reduce poverty..."
>>>
>>>This is totally and profoundly dorky.
>>
>>No, again, as you are wont to do, you distort and invent.  How many
>>times does this make, Brad?  A half-dozen, maybe more?  First Chomsky
>>comes in for your calumny, then Bruce Cumings, now back to Chomsky.
>>Each time I have to intrude with the facts, quickly ascertained with a
>>few minutes of nose to book.  A smartie like you with a good library
>>should know better than this.
>>
>>Let's see, according to you Aristotle was opposed to a limited degree
>>of inequality, which is why he... thought it best
>>that to arrange it so that "each man may have two estates and everyone
>>may have a share";
>
><sarcasm>Ah. My mistake. I presumed that slaves--the people who work 
>these two estates per "man"--are people too. </sarcasm>
>
>Of course, if slaves aren't people then, yes, you can read Aristotle 
>and pretend that he is a democrat. But I cannot imagine why anyone 
>woul want to...

And by the same logic, because you would presumably deny the right to
vote for 13 year-olds, you are "anti-democratic", since you exclude
some portion of the population.  Aristotle's vision of who would
participate in this is flawed in EXACTLY the same way as Madison's ---
women didn't count for much in his thought, nor did slaves.  Chomsky
explicitly made reference to this, but you just can't seem to get past
your preconceived notions to admit what is plainly obvious.

Bill