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

[Carl Remick]

>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

Emerson was scarcely oblivious to the darker side. Here's some of what he 
had to say in his essay "Fate":

"Our America has a bad name for superficialness.  Great men, great nations, 
have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, 
and have manned themselves to face it. ... Nature is no sentimentalist, -- 
does not cosset or pamper us.  We must see that the world is rough and 
surly, and will not mind drowning a man or woman, but swallows your ship 
like a grain of dust. ... The habit of snake and spider, the snap of the 
tiger and other leapers and bloody jumpers, the crackle of the bones of his 
prey in the coil of the anaconda, -- these are in the system, and our habits 
are like theirs."

Emerson certainly thought that no meaningful social revolution could occur 
without a change in the consciousness of individuals.  He was revulsed by 
the urban poverty he saw in England during an 1847-48 visit -- e.g., 
"beggary is only the beginning and the sign of sorrow and evil here" -- but 
he was dubious about the revolutionary ferment he saw in London in 1848:  
"People here expect a revolution.  There will be no revolution, none that 
deserves to be called so.  There may be a scramble for money.  But as all 
the people we see want the things we now have, and not better things, it is 
very certain that they will, under whatever change of forms, keep the old 
system.  When I see changed men, I shall look for a changed world.  Whoever 
is skilful in heaping money now will be skilful in heaping money again."

Carl

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