>Chomsky's response is lame. People want to hear him say and mean it:
>I live in the greatest country on the planet. they want to hear him
>say, I love this country so fucking much that I want us to do
>better. I love the people in this country. I know we're a
>compassionate people. I know we want freedom and equality and peace.
>And I want our nation state to do what i know American people stand
>for because I know they don't stand for death, destruction, and
>terror.
>
>Now, I don't know if Chomsky is capable of that.
Oddly enough, he is rather deeply American - in his anti-intellectual, antitheoretical empiricism, in his belief that the right argument will ultimately win, and in his taste for big houses. On the last, years ago I had a phone conversation with him where I said something kind about German income distribution compared to the U.S. He countered with something like, "But have you seen those small houses they live in?"
> Are any of us capable of saying the above and meaning it? Do you
>want to criticize the US because you think the US is a nation of
>good and decent people, etc? I think that, on some left principles,
>it is anathema to say that. I think Chuck described it as selling
>out or something.
He could say it, you could say it, but would it be true? There are lots of good and decent people in the U.S., for sure. I took a beating last fall for saying agreeing with the WSWS that anti-Americanism is the anti-imperialism of fools, and for saying that the U.S. is hardly uniquely racist, and is more welcoming of immigrants than most other places. But the U.S. is also full of people who believe awful things - religious nuts, social Darwinists, etc. Why is it essential to indulge the national narcissism?
Doug