>On Thu, 30 May 2002, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > I found the transcript:
> >
>
>[snippage]
>
> > CHOMSKY: I don't. I choose to live in what I think is the greatest
> > country in the world, which is committing horrendous terrorist acts
> > and should stop.
>
>
>Like Yosh points out here, Chomsky said exactly what Kel wished that
>he had said! How much of this patriotic deep throating does Noam
>have to do before he's considered a good American?
>
>Miles
i felt that he didn't say it especially convincingly, but not because he doesn't mean it, but because he was too busy responding to bennettbarf's personalized attack with more of the same. i wondered if chomsky could possibly say, i love the US and want to criticize it to make it better? i wondered if he could say what his motivations are, because i've heard him say it before. saying it like he has in the past is another kettle of fish because it answers the question: WHY does he engage in this criticism and WHAT are his goals for the criticism.
that's an answer that is worthwhile giving. i asked, can we do the same? in the past, responses to these sorts of debates has suggested that we shouldn't appear to be doing anything but criticizing the US. to praise anything about US culture or people or anything seems to be anathema to the left. Why?
i know that i have a hard time bringing myself to saying these things, even if felt, b/c i'm afraid it plays to nationalism. and yet, chomsky did. do you think he's lying and just playing ot the crowd because he has to? are you embarassed for him, as the fellah at indymedia is? why?
i'll admit: i was very tired when i wrote my first post. but i was not complaining that chomsky didn't say it but that i couldn't tell that he was sincere. which seemed odd to me because the one line i remember from chomsky, something that gets people who read it from a hostile position, is that he says that he thinks that his critiques are about making the US live up to its ideals.
on a gut level, i agree with that sentiment. and yet, i object to it. not because i don't think that we have some solid insitutions i'd like to preserve, but because of the effects of saying it.
i was complaining because he said it with less conviction than he apparently has for the sentiment and that was, i think, because he got caught up attacking bennett.
kelley