If I could ever have the ears of the world, for even 2 seconds, I would tell them to 'Youtube Noam Chomsky'. Just listening to the man is listening to a powerful sage intellect break down and accurately describe, scary and true events and ideas with a polymathic knowledge bank, ranging from philosophy, history, political, social and biological sciences. I might be a bit of a fanboy, but I can't help but be intellectually inspired by Noam Chomsky. I just wish more people were aware of him and his work.
Noam Chomsky is a towerlingly thoughtful man and activist for humanity. He has realised that he has a limited amount of time with people's attention. He has distilled the most important message he possibly can; that is, talking about the largest existential (not philosophical existential but literal existential) threats to life as we know it, climate change and the stockpiling of nuclear arms. He is outward with his pragmatic priorities and I can't help but praise the work he's done and is doing and send anyone I can to watch and read his stuff. He has rolled with the times too. He used to write lots of books, as a way to get the message out. Now he also does a lot of recorded interviews. He is a legitimate powerhouse in terms of communication. His texts span complex topics and he manages to clearly explain while not oversimplifying, which is an incredible skill
What drives Noam Chomsky? What are his goals? A lot of people feel this way, but he's such an advocate and activist. He's taken political activism to an almost scary degree. He travels around the world giving sell-out talks and discussions and panels, now mainly via webcam. He is so fucking good as what he does, the ruling class are scared to even address his critisisms, because that will immediately draw attention to them and their heinous actions.
Does Chomsky listen to music? Would he even have the time, or the inclination? Why hasn't he retired? God, working till his 90's. I think he knows people will remember him and his message for a long time. He knows he is on the right side of history and doesn't need to be smug about it. It is required for him to perform his activism.
What is also inspiring about him is that he owns things when he doesn't know them and will admit to not being an expert or knowing about something despite demonstrating a semi-expert amount of knowledge across a diverse array of topics. Sometimes, but not often he will be blind-sighted by a question or topic, and bumble a bit, but it's not often he doesn't have a pretty good idea what the question was and how to astutely answer it. I aspire to be like this. He also often quotes the enemy. This is another admirable trait; knowing what drives them and being aware of their tactics and philosophy, while also in stark disagreement about their goals. Chomsky has this in spades. He's informed on a level that most people care to know even exists; he lives this thing. You can see it when he talks and it explains why he continues to work at an age where most are either dead or dying.
I wonder, does Noam Chomsky ever get scared about speaking out on particular things? Like, legitimately scared, offending extremely powerful organisations, governments, cartels etc?
Though, Noam Chomsky once said the space race was an "infantile competition to land a man on the moon" and "Taxpayers can be deluded into supporting the Roman Circus of the space race...", this is one of the things I disagree with him on, but that is all that springs to mind. I think he misses the larger, unintentional effect which was the spiritual win for humanity. A beacon of hope for the future. Looking up at the sky, seeing an extra-planetary body, knowing we can go there. Where else can we go?
Keep it up Noam. Though we've never met, I am flattered and humbled to have overlapped existences with you on earth. You've taught me so much and opened my eyes to so many things. You're the reason I have become invested in the intellectual pursuit of history and the politics which influence and shape our world. You helped make me a more informed member of society and for that I will forever be grateful. In turn, I don't always succeed, but I always try to do the same.
