>[Editor: As for your parents, they may enjoy _Understanding Power_.
>Chomsky's most fun in wide-ranging Q&A sessions; his prepared speeches and
>books are relatively boring. For videos, his appearance in Budapest was
>awesome; online at Youtube. Your mileage may vary.]
thanks, but no thanks. my partner thinks I do it just great. e.g., I can do what Chomsky asks. Nonetheless, I know how difficult it is and I know, with much more familiarity than Chomsky knows, that people don't always get it so readily. They are working against a lifetime of being made to feel dumb and, to assuage that feeling, blaming it on academics, rather than listening to folks who reveal that it is not the moral failings of academics that is the problem.
I also argue that Chomsky relies on a vulgar marxism which is easy to explain. As a consequence, he can't speak to the experience of oppressed groups in this society such as women, queers, and so forth.
vulgar marxism is fine, but it isn't capturing the entirety of the social relations of production and, as a consequence, fails to make the connection between the machinations of the government at the behest of capital and the reason why, in a welfare program studied by Lynne Haney, the women in the program rejected the feminist message of the counselors who urged them to stop hoping for love and marriage and, instead, become independent women. Chomsky's theory doesn't explain how their resistance to the "men in suits" translated into a ever tighter relationship and defense of their homeboys, not matter how they dogged them.
There are tons of feminists out there explaining the seemingly complex theories put forth by feminism and reaching masses of women. I may not agree with them but Catherine MacKinnon's and Andrea Dworkin's stuff were not always easy to understand. And yet, they both have swayed millions of women to action in this country and inspire huge dedication in the form of rape crisis shelters and various independent women's organizations developing on the ground all over the US, CA, UK, and AU. (I could also talk about the way that Butler's work spread throughout queer communities and affected social practice as well. Most of you are ignoring the fact that her work resonated among queers outside grad departments.)
That happened because, while the feminist writers themselves weren't always accessible, there were feminist versions of Chomsky taking it to the people. Chomsky condenses the much more difficult to read work of other theorists. Did Marx do it particularly well himself? WEll, read Critique of the Gotha Programme where various groups get a tongue lashing from him because they weren't "getting it".
(speaking of: are any of you familiar with the way publishers have seriously cut back on editing budgets such that the editors that all writers need get paid jack shit. i mean, if you want to get serious about poor writing, you might want to look at the actual social relations of production that might account for it.)
p.s I hear that Mattel is making a new Gumby Toy for the left in the likeness of Chompers. It's called "Pat Pat".
"You know how it is, come for the animal porn, stay for the cultural analysis." -- Michael Berube
Bitch | Lab http://blog.pulpculture.org