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-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.An unlikely star in Noam Chomsky
Linguistics professor, opponent of war packs a UT auditorium for calm, against-the-grain speech
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
The capacity crowd in the auditorium at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is on its feet, and its roar of approval reverberates through the entry hall and outside patio, where hundreds who can't get in listen to the tumult on hastily rigged speakers. Inside, a 73-year-old gray-haired grandfather in a sweater and sneakers smiles sweetly at the standing ovation he has provoked by merely walking onstage.
Going strictly by appearances, it's hard to think of someone less likely to elicit this reaction than Noam Chomsky. Slightly built and drably attired -- he has apparently been wearing the same honkingly unfashionable glasses for the last quarter-century -- Chomsky looks every inch the MIT linguistics professor he is. And he talks like one, too: Presented with a crowd he could easily play like a preacher, he instead leads them through a dense thicket of obscure government documents, forgotten historical facts and lengthy recitations on the principles of international law. Not once does he gesture emphatically or raise his voice. Yet the standing ovation he receives as he makes his way off the stage is even more fervent than the previous one.
The reaction, of course, is to what Chomsky says, not how he says it. Although he will go down in many history books as the academic who single-handedly dominated the field of linguistics in the 20th century, his rock-star stature on college campuses springs from his role as a dogged and lacerating critic of U.S. foreign policy. Since the Vietnam War, which he opposed long before popular sentiment turned against it, Noam Chomsky has been a thorn in the side of every succeeding U.S. administration, and people either love him or hate him for it.
"It was important to hear someone speak out against war and aggression," said John Lowe, one of those who gathered outside the doors of the LBJ Auditorium on Sunday, adding, "You don't get a chance to see one of the most important intellectuals in the world very often."
Lowe is not necessarily guilty of hyperbole. Chomsky is the most cited living author in the world, and he ranks eighth on the all-time list, just behind Sigmund Freud. Perhaps predictably, he is better known outside the United States, where his views on his country's policies are more widely shared.
"He's one of the only proofs that Americans aren't all sheep," said Phil ("I don't think I want to give you my last name"), a Canadian student who attended Sunday's lecture. "It would be scary to think of America without people like him in it. It's amazing he hasn't been shot." (Chomsky himself was dismissive of this prospect when it was raised by a questioner. "We don't have to worry about assassinations," he replied. "That's not the way things work here.")
At both Chomsky's speech at UT on Sunday and his appearance at the Texas Civil Rights Project's Bill of Rights dinner Saturday night, Topic A was the proposed U.S. invasion of Iraq, and he didn't hesitate to call it "a gift to Osama bin Laden," referring frequently to the recently released CIA report that said such an act would make attacks on the United States more likely. "If we want to stop terrorism, the scholarly experts are agreed on how to do it," he said. "You address the grievances that produced it. There are ways to create terrorism, if that's what you want to do. Invading Iraq is a good start."
Though he rarely consults his notes, Chomsky's talks are peppered with specific references to administration policy papers, the U.S. Code, and other, more arcane resources, which he repeatedly urges his listeners to read for themselves. Seemingly incapable of brevity, he is likely to answer a question about Iran by going over the entire history of the country, complete with verbal footnotes, before addressing the issue raised.
Chomsky's discursiveness on Saturday and Sunday took in a dizzying array of subjects, including the Bush administration ("radical statist fanatics, far removed from traditional conservatives"), the bombing of Afghanistan ("If that was a just war because violence against Americans was planned there, does that mean we think it's OK for Cuba and Nicaragua to bomb Washington?"), Israel ("an offshore U.S. military base"), the International Monetary Fund ("If the U.S. had been forced to follow IMF rules for developing nations, our main exports would still be fur and fish"), and even the 19th-century British navy ("built on the hugest narco-trafficking operation ever").
Despite his dour assessment of the state of the world, Chomsky allowed a few notes of hope to creep into his message. Noting the level of progressive activism in Austin, he stressed the advantages of living in a democracy and urged his listeners to take advantage of that fact to change government policy. "We don't live in Turkey; we live in the United States," he said. "We're not jailed for speaking out. We can do something about it."
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