The Loneliness of Noam Chomsky

After September11 , the mainstream media's blatant performance as the U.S Government's propaganda machine has only served to highlight the business of `managing' public opinion. The resultant `mistrust of the mass media' would at best be a political hunch or at worst a loose accusation, if it were not for the relentless and unswerving media analysis of one of the world's greatest minds. And this is only one of the ways in which Noam Chomsky has radically altered our understanding of the society in which we live. Rationally and empirically, he has unmasked the ugly, manipulative, ruthless American universe that exists behind the word `freedom', says ARUNDHATI ROY, in an essay written as an introduction for the new edition of Noam Chomsky.

Everybody knows that authoritarian regimes, regardless of their ideology, use the mass media for propaganda. But what about democratically elected regimes in the "free world"?

Today, thanks to Noam Chomsky and his fellow media analysts, it is almost axiomatic for thousands, possibly millions, of us that public opinion in "free market" democracies is manufactured just like any other mass market product - soap, switches, or sliced bread. We know that while, legally and constitutionally, speech may be free, the space in which that freedom can be exercised has been snatched from us and auctioned to the highest bidders. Neoliberal capitalism isn't just about the accumulation of capital (for some). It's also about the accumulation of power (for some), the accumulation of freedom (for some). Conversely, for the rest of the world, the people who are excluded from neoliberalism's governing body, it's about the erosion of capital, the erosion of power, the erosion of freedom. In the "free" market, free speech has become a commodity like everything else - - justice, human rights, drinking water, clean air. It's available only to those who can afford it. And naturally, those who can afford it use free speech to manufacture the kind of product, confect the kind of public opinion, that best suits their purpose. (News they can use.) Exactly how they do this has been the subject of much of Noam Chomsky's political writing. AP

The U.S. 'empire' rests on a grisly foundation.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/August/29%20o/The%20Loneliness%20of%20Noam%20Chomsky%20By%20Arundhatti%20Roy.htm

would reject, I think, the mantle of "hero" but I have to work at not regarding him as such.

I agree. It is unfortunate that in a thread somewhere in
the General Discussion section of this web site several sheep
DUers went along with the Joe Conosan comment that Chomsky and
radicals from the 70s generation had become irritating
and, by implication, obsolete.

Management of public opinion by the current regime is
so powerful that even this article celebrating Chomsky
isn't published any place where a large audience can read it.

Instead it lands in al-Jareeza (note the URL) and will ofcourse be discredited
by a lot of people including those who ought to be thanking their stars we
stll have Chomsky around.

My part was trying to understand what Joe was trying to convey with that Chomsky comment. I still find it an idiosyncrasy in an otherwise thoroughly factual work.

More disturbing is the hate of the media and less of a hate for BushCo when in fact the latter controls the former.

more increasingly so since 9/11. chomsky has contributed a great body of work regarding the media and "manufactoring consent" It is interesting as you say the article finds itself on Al-Jazeerah, but who said al-jazeerah is crap. How could that fly in the face of Fox news.

I love chomsky. I don't care where he is printed. The Arabs do have a perspective. Those who will across the board condemn arab sites out of hand are as biased as the bias they condemn without even really reading the content of the sites they condemn.

thanks very much for posting this. Arundhati Roy is an excellent communicator. A great essay on Chomsky. I liked it all, and had a smile on my face with this part that Arundhati wrote towards the end:

As someone who grew up on the cusp of both American and Soviet propaganda (which more or less neutralised each other), when I first read Noam Chomsky, it occurred to me that his marshalling of evidence, the volume of it, the relentlessness of it, was a little - how shall I put it? - insane. Even a quarter of the evidence he had compiled would have been enough to convince me. I used to wonder why he needed to do so much work. But now I understand that the magnitude and intensity of Chomsky's work is a barometer of the magnitude, scope, and relentlessness of the propaganda machine that he's up against. He's like the wood-borer who lives inside the third rack of my bookshelf. Day and night, I hear his jaws crunching through the wood, grinding it to a fine dust. It's as though he disagrees with the literature and wants to destroy the very structure on which it rests. I call him Chompsky.

Being an American working in America, writing to convince Americans of his point of view must really be like having to tunnel through hard wood. Chomsky is one of a small band of individuals fighting a whole industry. And that makes him not only brilliant, but heroic.

snip

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/August/29%20o/The%20Loneliness%20of%20Noam%20Chomsky%20By%20Arundhatti%20Roy.htm

And, I agree with the above posts about Chomsky not wanting to be viewed as a "hero." I've seen video clips of him being asked about his personal life and history, and he has said exactly that.

We are lucky to have him and his work.

edit: wanted to add this (though it might appear that I'm posting to myself)--

it is pretty amazing when one thinks of the vast amount of material out there exposing the vast amount of propaganda in the U.S., and to think that none of those that have exposed it are put on TV or in the mass mainstream corporate media very much at all:

When do you see the following authors on TV or in the mainstream corporate media:

Noam Chomsky
Edward Herman
Ben Badgikian
Robert McChesney
Rick MacArthur
John Stauber
Sheldon Rampton
www.fair.org

I'm sure I left some deserving people off that list, but that was what just came to mind.

Stauber and Rampton just came out with another current book called "Weapons of Mass Deception", and I have not seen them on any mass media outlets, or TV shows being allowed to promote their book. The corporate TV shows sure do promote Ann Coulter though.
Thankfully I did hear them on KPFA and Pacifica Radio.

But, the vast amount of quality material out there that is relaitvely unknown to most Americans is, like Arundhati Roy stated, evidence of the huge media propaganda machine at work. Those individuals in the corporate media do not want people to know about this material.

If you know your source for astute and objective criticism it matters not where they can be found. People have discredited chomsky because the radical patriots and white supremists utlize his critques on both the US foreign policy as well as Israeli propaganda and doctrine. Of course chomsky can not account for the agendas of the groups that embrace his work. I find sometimes any partisanship even to one's own faction can be restrictive. Chomsky lives unto himself.

That the vast majority of information out there is unknown to Americans is a statement on the degree of apathy many Americans suffer, they barely take in the network news and most don't care to know what is really going on. I find it a irresponsible. Most feel why should they know they can't do much about it anyway.

You won't see this stuff in the mass media, it tends to crop on exactly those outlets that the vast majority of Americans (many uninformed or duped by the doctrine of this countries ideology) will vilify for no reason but that it goes contrary to their blindly patriotic loyalty to a country right or wrong. It hasn't been until recently that I realized this. I use to go crazy trying to source my views with numerous sources. Now I don't bother. For the sheep lost there are never enough sources. Free thinkers really are in the minority.

It's just an opinionated website that can be confused with it.

The Arabic cable channel is at http://www.aljazeera.net / http://english.aljazzerra.net

Thanks for the link.

Chomsky has given a lot to the Left in terms of analysis and ideas BUT he's redundant as hell and if you listen and reread his stuff you can clearly see the repetition in his work. It's just remixed for new situations.
Plus he touts being an anarchist yet supports the state - never got that.
~bahstun

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Peter Werbe - "connecting the dots" http://www.peterwerbe.com