Here is a conversation that I had with Noam Chomsky about the counterculture. In my description of the piece, which prefaces our talk, I say that it is the complete transcript of our conversation, which it is not. The complete transcript is about 9000 words and Truthdig won’t post anything more than 5000. Still, it’s a start. Sadly, one of the things that got chopped was Chomsky praising Bad Religion. Dig it.
I think it’s possible that Noam is an old man who is stuck in his ways and mostly out of touch with reality now, who believes that modern electronic surveillance techniques are no “big deal”, who is so confident that COINTELPRO did not continue under a different name or is not now totally secret as COINTELPRO once was, who is somehow not aware of the vast numbers of “Intelligence” agencies that have been created supposedly for the purpose of “fighting terror”, and who is unaware that political assassinations most likely do continue as long as they’re not so much in the public eye (Paul Wellstone, Michael Connell, Pat Tillman, etc). And in other interviews he has demonstrated his conviction that demanding a real investigation of 9/11 is a waste of time. Well, at least he’s right about intellectuals supporting the state.
Thank you for making this interview available. Unless there are some permissions issues, you really ought to post the whole thing. If hosting is a problem, maybe archive.org is the place to go.
I’ve always shied away from reading Chomsky because the only people I ever encountered that talked about Chomsky were real in-your-face assholes. I also attended a very conservative college that had a culture of disdain for discussing or thinking about facts of history over intellecutal theory.
I was impressed the way he was clearly paying attention to the themes you were bringing up in your conversation, while at the same time persistently pressing his own point about paying attention to progress made over the last 40 years. And as much as I enjoy all the cartoons, it was fun seeing you get schooled 😉
Interesting interview/conversation. I wonder if it was intimidating for you. Can’t Truthdig do a Part 1 and Part 2?
fish
all i can say is the world needs, maybe not heros, but People.
You, above all, are people. I will miss Chris Hitchens. More People.
Chomsky. People.
What is your secret? I spent 8 years in the belly of the political comedy beast and i am nearly beaten. I find no humor in anything anymore.
You, and People, do help me put my pants on in the morning.
More thanks than i can ever offer,
peace
box