Chomsky on "theory" from Barsamian interview,was "no social science theories"

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Fri Dec 14 15:54:05 PST 2001


Carl Remick wrote:


>What interests me is that you can find essentially the same view
>(absent the vitriol and scorn, of course) in Emerson. Emerson was
>sympathetic to the goals of Charles Fourier, with his often
>ingenious schemes for utopian socialism, but he thought he was way
>too rigid and uncomprehending of psychology. It's certainly
>arguable that the growth and spread of the transcendental awareness
>that Emerson advocated would produce more socialistic thinking and
>the development of nonmarket forms of economic coordination, but
>it's not possible to predict exactly what changes in the structure
>and operation of society would result.

Yeah, but then Emerson could say cranky things like "Are they my poor?" When you traipse through life as a transparent eyeball, you sometimes miss the darker side of things.

Doug



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