Re: Scienter and all that stuff

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Responding to msg by jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald) on 
Tue, 20 Sep  3:22 PM

>
>Of course Noam Chomsky is optimistic - he favors 
>limitless and absolute  state power and the forcible 
>and violent silencing of all those who  deviate from 
>political correctness.
>
>If I was campaigning to make a the US a totalitarian 
>terrorist  state, I would be full of optimism.


I respectfully suggest that that's not what Chomsky advocates.  
He makes superior detailed analysis and criticism of 
authoritarian government by brilliantly attacking weak-willed 
ideologues of all political persuasions which hide under skirts 
of tyrants.

On the contrary, his optimism, it seems to me, derives from his 
own hard work and original thinking not from parroting any 
party line.

With this he is in the company of original thinkers like Karl 
Hess, Murrary Bookchin and others who have garnered the courage 
to grow beyond the simple faith of left-right comforts and 
conceits.

Their writings have a generosity of scope and purpose that 
exemplify how to assess specific problems and to prescribe 
remedies, and thereby perhaps help us break free of the 
mesmerizing, melodramatic defecations of partisan politics.

Or so I optimistically muse.


John