Posted on 10/19/2002 11:47:25 AM PDT by Mr. Mulliner
Chomsky to air contrarian views
Central Texans are turning out to hear, protest the noted intellectual's talks.
By Robert W. Gee
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, October 19, 2002Noam Chomsky doesn't think in shades of gray. The noted Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist and white-hot political contrarian is loved and hated for his stark views on just about everything.
On U.S. foreign policy:
The United States is "a leading terrorist state."
On the Middle East:
"Israel has become essentially an off-shore U.S. military base."
On President Bush:
"In general, I think his impact on the country and the world is somewhere between dismal down to extremely dangerous."
His opinions are in such demand these days that his schedule is planned out three years in advance. His day is chopped into 15- and 20-minute intervals in which he oozes soft-spoken venom for journalists, students, European radio interviewers and most anyone else who requests an audience. He spends as many as eight hours a day responding to hundreds of e-mails.
"There's a lot of urgent requests, and I just can't find a way to say no," he explained. "Since Sept. 11, it's been a full-time job. Everything got totally out of hand."
Long before Sept. 11, he received a request from a group in Austin to speak. He accepted. This weekend, for the first time in 20 years, he is scheduled to visit Texas. After speaking at the University of Houston, he comes to Austin to address a sold-out fund-raiser for the Texas Civil Rights Project tonight; and at noon Sunday, he'll give a free lecture at the LBJ School of Public Affairs on the University of Texas campus. The address is being sponsored by two UT student groups, the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Conservative student groups and Texans for Israel are planning a protest outside the Sunday lecture.
"No matter what you think of Chomsky's politics, I think he's one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century," said UT journalism professor Robert Jensen, who helped arrange Chomsky's visit. "Love him or hate him, Chomsky takes seriously his role as an intellectual and his obligation as a citizen. Even if one doesn't like his politics, I don't think one can criticize his commitment to public life."
Chomsky says he won't alter his remarks for a Texas audience, but the significance of the locale isn't lost on him.
"I doubt that (Bush) will be sending anyone over from Crawford, and I don't expect to stop there unless I get an invitation," Chomsky said.
Chomsky, 73, who has maintained a loyal following since he aired his outspoken anti-war views in the 1960s, gained renown after his book "9-11" was published a year ago. It is a collection of Chomsky interviews on the topic.
By May, it had made a handful of best-seller lists in the United States and abroad, but it received scant attention from mainstream media.
Among Chomsky's assertions: To view the United States as an innocent victim is to ignore "the record of its action and those of its allies, which are, after all, hardly a secret." He ticks off, as examples, U.S. interventions in Central America, U.S. support of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and continued "Israeli atrocities" in the occupied territories.
He said he'll focus his addresses in Austin on the current war talk in Washington.
"They're desperately eager to have a war, and they're trying very hard to undercut any alternative that might divert them from it," Chomsky said of the Bush administration.
"I think people in the country are pretty much frightened by the war propaganda. I suspect people really believe Saddam Hussein is a threat to their existence. . . . It doesn't take much to frighten people."
He has joined 20,000 artists, intellectuals and musicians in signing a "statement of conscience" against Bush's stance on Iraq. Chomsky argues that public opposition to a war in Iraq is much greater than opposition to the Vietnam War during the early stages of that conflict.
He said Congressional support for a war is not surprising. "It takes a bit of courage to stand up to say to somebody who announces themselves to be the war leader, 'I don't like your war.' "
bgee@statesman.com; 445-3643
Chomsky speech
What: Noam Chomsky, a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a well-known critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Bush administration, speaks on `Unending Wars: The U.S. and the Middle East.'
Where: LBJ Auditorium, Sid Richardson Hall, east of the LBJ Library.
When: Noon Sunday (doors open at 10 a.m.)
Admission: The event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.
Parking: Free parking is available in the lots on Red River Street, just south of Dean Keeton Street.
Noam Chomsky is a linguistics professor at MIT and a well-known critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Bush administration.
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