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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
Mike Kruger wrote in part:
In linguistics, Chomsky is a bona-finbe genius. Genius isn't all that transferrable, however. Just because you have achieved brilliance in an academic field does not mean you are brilliant in all fields, or even more than one. In politics, Chomsky is on the far, far fringe. I see him as sort of a 'radical' inflammatory pundit-professor. In the end, his informative rants are undermined by an inability to control his emotions (anger, primarily), which leads to an overreaching that is ultimately fatal to his arguments. To Chomsky, government conspiracy and thought control determine pretty much everything, there are no accidents, there is no democratic choice that has any significant role in shaping events. Obviously not true, but his writings contain much more detail and fact-based scholarship than is typical, and this is useful scholarship that unfortunately is obscured by the 'message.' It is true that the more you know about history of US foreign policy, the more angry you get, and ol' Noam knows a great deal. But ultimately he ignores an entire huge portion of the story, namely that people are fundamentally stupid and sheep-like and largely complicit in their own repression and ignorance. (In Chomsky-world, people are not born stupid, they are made and KEPT that way by sneaky govt. indoctrination.) As a relentless critic of US policy he performs what I believe to be a vital role in democracy--makes people think and be less sheep-like. Robert thimk |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
Mike Kruker wrote:
In linguistics, Chomsky is a bona-finbe genius. Genius isn't all that transferrable, however. Yeah, I suppose you could say William Shockley was a genius at physics, but that doesn't mean there was any wisdom in his social and political views. -- Paul Turner |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
"Mike Kruger" wrote in message et... wrote in message Can't you do better than Noam Chomsky and some comedian I've never heard of? Yeah, if he can't even spell "Norm", then schkrew him. |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
SB wrote:
On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:52:11 +0000, Mike Kruger wrote: In linguistics, Chomsky is a bona-finbe genius. Genius isn't all that transferrable, however. Just because you have achieved brilliance in an academic field does not mean you are brilliant in all fields, or even more than one. In politics, Chomsky is on the far, far fringe. No, he's not. He's right on. He seems on the fringe because the rest of the western world is disgustingly to the right. Peace, love and understanding are only for songs and peoples' personal inner circles in our current corporate dominated society where ignorance and selfishness prevails. IOW, "I and that very small percentage of the population that agrees with me are centrists. Everyone else is on the fringe and they are all disgusting, hateful, ignorant, selfish people." Thank god the "true believers" on both the left and right think that this type of foaming at the mouth proselytizing is effective persuasion. That helps prevent their lunacies from spreading. Regards, Bob Hunt |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
cycle-one wrote:
Gee and ere I thought I was the last reactionary. Does anyone else consider as an added benefit the lack of control the state can exert by eschewing kars and all the attendant licensing;and living a cycling life? Not arf. I've recently (after a four year break) rejoined the "car owning democracy" as Thatch called it, and have had plenty of time over the last week to ponder this relationship with the private car. ISTM that they are both the ultimate in the physical manifestation of the aspirational ******** we are all conditioned to believe in while at the same time acting as a really good distraction for the bewildered herd. People everywhere spend ages moaning about traffic, roads, cameras etc. while nicely missing the really important things we should all be bitching about (insert refs to our slide into a totalitarian dictatorship here). I agree that being without a car does remove oneself from a whole raft of govt. interference. As does avoiding air travel.... I can hardly bear to go into airports these days as they seem to have moved from being places where one gets on/off an aeroplane to places where you get your fear levels topped up/reinforced. Coppers with guns? No thanks. While we (ok, I) are putting the world to rights, may I also add that I am incredibly ****ed off that I need a passport to get to France. Indeed, Mrs B on a recent flight from Manchester to Edinburgh was required to show her passport. "Papers! Papers!" indeed. Then again, compare my journey to work via cycle and car. On the bike I get chance to destress and ponder the interconnectedness of all things, in the car I just feel my life and will to keep kicking slowly ebbing away. No wonder they don't like cyclists. Love, Che |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
Elisa Francesca Roselli wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/ny...rtner=homepage Oh my god, the police are WATCHING people in public places! How awful! yawn Regards, Bob Hunt |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
Bill Sornson wrote:
But you apparently think that "people are fundamentally stupid and sheep-like and largely complicit in their own repression and ignorance", so Chomsky changes their very nature?!? I would say that reading Chomsky or Bill Buckley or David Brooks or Tierney or Ayn Rand or Nietzsche or Plato or C.S. Lewis or St. Augustine or Kazantzakis or Michael Herr or any number of others who somewhat have their s#*! together, regardless of political leanings, would help folks begin to overcome what appears to me to be a natural human tendency toward not knowing, or caring, what in the hell is going on. Typical elitist left-wing arrogance. Whatever you say man. How do you define 'left-wing' and what makes you think I am part of it? Robert |
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NYT Article: Police Surveillance of Cyclists as Political Dissidents
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