Thursday, April 12, 2007
A letter in The Jewish Advocate related to the Chomsky controversy:
I just wanted to note in regards to Noam Chomsky: I am editing a collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens and his critics, on terrorism, war and Iraq. I asked through the Nation magazine to reprint a Chomsky-Hitchens debate, and was granted permission, and then Chomsky intervened with the Nation to block this permission. He also tried to block the entire project at the University of California Press by intimidating some editors there (I have documentary evidence for both assertions). In fact, Chomsky himself is one of the great ideological censors of free and open debate in America, and to see him portrayed as being muzzled is ironically disgusting to me, since I myself (and Christopher-Hitchens) am a victim of his own censorious machinations.
Thomas Cushman
Professor, Wellesley College
Wellesley
From the Herald -- Chomsky's supporters:
Pete Lowney of Newton demonstrates in favor of Palestine outside as Noam Chomsky spoke at Newton South High School. (AP photo)
Seeing it's about Chomsky this Right Wing News post won't be off topic:
One Of These Things ...
Since Chomsky, who has been an incredibly influential figure on the left, is an America hating anti-Semite, his inclusion seems very appropriate.
When I first saw the bottom half of the sign ("Stop Attacking Sudan"), I thought that at least this guy was a little even-handed. He was ready to criticize Arab Muslims when they were plainly guilty; at least he was criticizing the mass killings in Sudan.
Duh! Then I realized that he was enjoining us to stop lambasting the Arab Muslim Sudanese government for its killings of black Christians in the south of Sudan and of black Muslims in the west.
He doesn't seem to care who's guilty, or how guilty they actually are, or how many victims they've killed (about 200,000 dead in Darfur, for instance). For him, it seems, Arab Muslims are always right and everyone else can go take a hike.
This isn't about being distraught about massacres. There is no moral consistency here. Even if the common thread is to oppose any cause the US supports, wouldn't anyone who really cared about the lives of oppressed people--any oppressed people being oppressed by anyone--put that consideration aside for the sake of compassion?
What is wrong with these people?
I pointed out to Chomsky some years ago that the more he wrote, the more ammo he would be giving his critics. Now he's responded by trying to block access to his old writings - wants them tossed down the memory hole so nobody can point out the contradictions that can't be pointed out in a face-to-face confrontation.