Chomsky still going strong at 93

For those of you who think, as I do, that Noam Chomsky is one of our greatest living intellectuals, let me recommend an interview I just came across on YouTube. It was published over a year ago, but its content is totally fresh.

It's about an hour long.

I've been down on Chomsky of late because of his stand on the war in Ukraine. He is one of many who believe Russia is simply too powerful for Ukraine to resist, and nothing can come of resistance but more death and destruction. It's the "better red than dead" argument in a new context.

I don't want to engage in that argument here, except to say in passing that I think Chomsky is underestimating how much damage to the Ukrainian psyche would come from surrender to Putin's egomaniacal plan to absorb Ukraine and wipe out its entire recent history as a nation. What I do want to do here is celebrate Chomsky as a brilliant thinker, all the while reminding myself that nobody gets it right all the time, and only fools throw out the good because it's not the perfect. Chomsky is not perfect, but he is very very good.

Here he is interviewed by an Iranian immigrant named Patrick Bet-David, whom I'm just learning about, an entrepreneur who blogs (vlogs) on the topic of capitalism. He's worth about 150 million dollars. I hate to think that Chomsky agreed to be interviewed by this guy for money, but I can't imagine why else he would agree to give him the time of day.* I haven't seen any of his other interviews, so I don't know if he always comes across as an intellectual lightweight. He sure did in this interview.

No matter.  When Chomsky speaks, what he has to say about his life history and political philosophy is very much worth listening to. I've listened to him for many years; this is one of the best summations of his political thought I've ever come across. It doesn't matter that the silly man he is sitting next to is making an ass of himself; he's giving Chomsky the opportunity to get some very important ideas out to the viewing public.

What you see displayed in this interview is what Chomsky is routinely criticized for. He tends to focus on institutions and not individuals. Bet-David made his fortune building a company and, as Marx pointed out, what we see depends on where we sit. Bet-David defines success in material terms, as the result of individual effort. Chomsky is more inclined to see progress as the work of many working collectively. It's a gentle clash of perspectives for the most part, although Chomsky ends up putting his opponent down as somebody who concentrates on the footnotes and misses the main point of the story.

Wonderful bits pop out here and there. Like Chomsky's explanation for why he dwells on the negative. Why waste your time with things that don't need fixing?  And Antonio Gramsci's quote: "I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will." 

At first I found myself getting really annoyed that Bet-David tried to debate Chomsky, when so much of what Chomsky had to say seemed to fly right over his head, instead of simply interviewing him and letting him talk. But I came to see that his lack of information gave Chomsky the opportunity to demonstrate that he is, in the end, a teacher.

A great way to spend a spare hour. Not as great as listening to Yunchan Lim, the eighteen-year-old winner of this year's Van Cliburn competition in Fort Worth, play Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and Liszt's Transcendental Etudes.

But worth the time.

*Another explanation for why Chomsky is taking the time to talk to this guy is that Chomsky simply likes to talk, doesn't worry about the knowledge level of his interlocutors, and practices what he preaches: he believes that free speech is its own justification - enough talk and good ideas come through. It's up to all of us to separate the wheat from the chaff. Here's another "interview," similar to the one with Bet-David, with Owen Jones, reporter for the Guardian. Much better informed than Bet-David, but also fell over his own leftist ideology when he came out in support of Hugo Chavez. But he gives Chomsky the chance to defend his position on Ukraine.

A reasonable critique of Chomsky and his position on Ukraine is available here. (You've got to work your way around the arrogance. The insight is there.)

credit:

photo of Noam Chomsky, still going strong at 93.