> I was exaggerating a bit, and I should make it clear that I admire
> Chomsky tremendously. But I think he, and people like him, tend not
> to give enough weight to the malign interests and practices of
> outside forces - comprador classes in the Third World, the EU and
> Japanese ruling classes, despots and religious reactionaries all over
> the place, etc. It's a very U.S.-centric view of the world
> (paralleling Chomsky's very American anti-theoretical empiricism).
>
>
The U.S. has the more power (a lot more power) than other nations -- thus shapes the particular form capitalism takes to a much greater extent than anyone else. If France were the sole superpower, captialism would be as least as bad (maybe worse) - but it would be signifcantly different.
But Chomsky has another reason for focusing on the U.S. A Martian holding the same point of view as Chomsky might well give more weight to non-US forces. But, he is an American, and thus -- as he has pointed out many times -- his primary obligation to criticise US evil rather than evil on the part of other nations. His premise here is that since he lives here, and it is formally a democracy, he has more influence in this country than any other, and thus the obligation to focus where it will do the most good. (Another example, that Chomksy is aware of the contradictions is that he has been known to say that the U.S. , in some ways, offers more freedom to it's citizens than any other country on earth. [Post 911 that may change.] He adds that this gives us a much greater obligation than people who risk death and imprisonment for speaking out.)
BTW, when traveling abroad he has been known to change his focus, if he thinks it will be useful. For instance he had a chance to address the leadership of the PLO back in the late seventies or early eighties. He took the opporutinity to tell them that they were a bunch of terrorists, providing brutal and ineffective leadership to their people! (This was one of the few Chomsky political statements ever reported in the NY times.)
I share your basic view that Chomsky is both admirable, and has made mistakes that are worth criticizing. But I don't think giving too little weight to non-U.S. forces, or too little weight to the virtues of the U.S. are among themn..