[Ephirith]

Interesting read, and I like the vast majority of what he has to say. I feel a lot differently about anarchy now, I think. I still believe what he's after is an inferior system. Every system is a trade-off, and I think he overstates the benefits of personal freedom, and understates the benefits of authority, and the ease with which it can be justified.

Originally Posted by Noam Chomsky

And in it he described, correctly, the goal of the industry. He said our goal is to insure that the “intelligent minority” — and of course anyone who writes about these things is part of that intelligent minority by definition, by stipulation, so we, the intelligent minority, are the only people capable of running things, and there’s that great population out there, the “unwashed masses,” who, if they’re left alone will just get into trouble: so we have to, as he put it, “engineer their consent,” figure out ways to insure they consent to our rule and domination. And that’s the goal of the PR industry. And it works in many ways.

I've been just as guilty of this as your standard issue libertarian randroids, but I don't see how even an idealistic, highly organized anarcho-syndicate is a better way to handle the legions of ignorant rednecks, of which Chomsky does not deny the existence.

Originally Posted by Noam Chomsky

And if they can’t justify that authority and power and control, which is the usual case, then the authority ought to be dismantled and replaced by something more free and just.

This is the only part of the entire thing that I think is just very weak, every clause of it-- it's logically irresponsible. I don't think more freedom is always preferable to authority, even illegitimate authority, just for the sake of itself. It speaks to a world Chomsky believes in very strongly, but also one he's very immersed in and possibly maybe a little honeymoon about.

I think it's funny how many people hate Noam Chomsky because of the way he criticizes their crooked fucking ways, particularly Israel, American Evangelicals, and just people with a high net worth and any degree of power in general.

Originally Posted by Chomsky on Christianity

You can find things in the traditional religions
which are very benign and decent and wonderful and so on, but I mean,
the Bible is probably the most genocidal book in the literary canon.

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