>Actually, Chomsky's been pretty consistent over the years, in both his
>written and oral output, about the many positive feelings he has about the
>US, and there are many positive things about the US that -- surprise! --
>progressive forces have had a hand in creating.
>
>I don't think he's looking for rightwing converts. I think that's the way he
>really feels.
I think I've said before that one of the first times I ever talked to Noam, maybe 10-12 years ago, I said something positive about Germany, and he replied, "Germany? Have you ever seen how small their houses are?"
It's fine with me to find good things about U.S. life and culture. I do myself, and I've taken some shit here for it. But the "best country in the world"? What does that mean? Noam himself is one of the great chroniclers of its crimes - should that enter into some accounting of good and bad? We have mass poverty, immature politics, an often idiotic public culture. Calling in the "best" should be something for know-nothings, not well-educated cosmopolitans.
Doug