[PEN-L:29484] Re: Re: re:Noam Chomsky and Hyperbolic comparisons

[Ben Day <day@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 07:11 PM 8/15/2002 -0400, Louis Proyect wrote:
> > 2) Although Chomsky talks to 'activists' - it is interesting that
> > virtually all his venues are in that very base that he claims as the
> > refugee of "any" (??) thought/thinking- the University. How has Chomsky
> > connected to those that will make the revolution beyond the 'activists'
> > - but the working class? Has he? I freely admit I do not know enough to
> > say. Who does?
> Chomsky's social base is students and professionals. Unfortunately, they
> are the people who take the most militant stands against imperialism, not
> the proletariat. That was not the case in 1938 but we have to deal with
> reality, not fantasy.

Well, "social base" is being generous - I think "audience" may be the more
appropriate term here, as Chomsky is not an organizer, nor contributing to
any particular organization which might be said to have a social base. Your
response here, Louis, seems to imply that since most progressive organizing
in the U.S. today - for better or worse - is driven by students and
professionals (by which I'd assume you mean professional activists, and not
professionals as an occupational category), we can't really blame Chomsky
for working primarily with students and professionals. But I think even
within this context, Chomsky typically consigns himself to the role of
outside consultant for progressives.

I live in Boston, where Chomsky and Zinn are, well, omnipresent. If you
wanted to see either of them speak somewhere every week here, it would
probably be a managable task (I exaggerate a little here, but not much!).
And many of us who organize forums, protests, or other events often turn to
them because they're generous with their time, excellent speakers, and
their presence guarantees a strong turnout. (Although typically you have to
book Chomsky at least a half-year in advance, there are so many demands on
his time!)  I think it would be a mistake to portray either of them as
upholding their ideals w.r.t. intervention in Afghanistan in the face of
broad-based unpopularity, as both have enjoyed immense local popularity
(and really no "popular" resistance) - I think we're really just talking
about the press and a certain swathe of the left turning on them (although,
in reality, most of these cases don't involve any "turn" at all - just
higher visibility).

Zinn seems to be more willing than Chomsky to specifically support activist
organizations, e.g. by appearing at fundraisers, but it's clear in many
cases that he really isn't aware of the politics of the groups he's
supporting (which are sometimes not very good), and I think guided more
often by the presence of former BU (Boston University) students of his than
by their merits per se.

In response specifically to Hari's last set of questions: you'll forgive me
if the reference to "those that will make the revolution" is a little
amusing in this context. In terms of organized labor, I can't imagine there
are many groups (certainly not unions) that would want Chomsky's help - and
this reflects well on Chomsky in most cases. However, in his capacity as
"outside consultant for progressives" (I hope I'm not being unfair in using
this term), it's probably not entirely fair to pigeon-hole him as sticking
to the ivory tower. Given particularly the issues of U.S. foreign policy
and interventionism that he specializes in, it's just as often that he
appears for events organized by immigrant groups - particularly Latin
American/Carribean, as Boston has large Dominican, Colombian, El
Salvadoran, and Haitian populations - as for those organized by student
activists (although this, too, constitutes a large "immigrant" population
in Boston!). The anti-war organizing around here has been pretty pitiful
and self-marginalizing, but what has been done has largely been under the
aegis of the American Friends Service Committee, and under its umbrella
much of the range of organizations formerly preoccupied with globalization
issues (which are predominantly student-based, although the AFSC is not).

-----Ben