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© Opinions

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September 10, 2003

 

Right

J.J. McCullough
Op Columnist

   
 
  

 
   
 

d an idea
1 a recent

   
 
 

famously
titute of

against the “atrocity” that was the war
in Vietnam. Like many of his
middle-aged Chomsky praise
North Vietnamese Communist govern-
ment as the overseers of a benevolent
“social revolution,” and not the brutal
mass-murdering expansionist thug!
they really were. Chomsky helped lead

protest rallies, sit-ins, and gav

    
   
   
  
 

ous speeches praising the Vietnamese

Cee smmuniats and denouncing the “US

university

  

   

made Chom Giferent was his age.
Already in his mid-40’s by Vietnam, he
was seen as something of a father figure
to the left-wing anti-war crowd. Thus,

while many of Chomsky’s youthful

Hook

  
  

is the ultimate source of evil, and

  

 
 
  
  
 
 
  
  
 
  

Anti-Americanism for Fun and Profit:

The Career of Noam Chomsky

author, and soon churned out book
after book, condemning the United
States in all its forms. His works gained
a tremendous following in the Ivory
Tower societies of North America’s uni-
versities, societies that much like
Chomsky himself often remain mired
in an outdated, 1970-era radical mind-
set. Currently, Chomsky is somewhat of
a figure of cult-like worship among
many young Leftist university students,
and their aging baby boomer professors
who grew up with his teachings. Visit
any university bookstore and you are
likely to find Chomsky books crowding
the shelves. Consult any university
reading list in subjects such as political
science, sociology, media studies, or
20th century history, and you are likely

omsky believes the “state”
should be destroyed. He favours some

sort of utopian Marxist model of socie-

happy harmony, etc e
believer i in the supe

  

requires a certain level of detachment
from reality. After all, the ideology has
failed in every nation it has ever been
tried in, leading to horrendous levels of
poverty, oppression, and human rights
buses. Chomsky knows this, therefore
validate his socialist ideology he has
reated numerous bizarre conspiracy-
theories regarding the United States and
the failure of socialism. In one of his
more famous books, What Uncle Sam
Really Wants Chomsky explains that
because

   

socialism failed b America was
afraid of it suceeedi this “1
threat of

_ crush the movement, thus nipping in

 

‘his titles included i in.

 
 
 
 
 
 

the bud the inevitable success of social-
ism. This is a very convenient view of
Cold War history that is understand-
ably popular with socialists who refuse
to believe that their own flawed ideolo-
gy was in any way responsible for the
poverty and despair it spread through-
out the world. It is also a convenient
ideology for Soviet apologists, who con-
tinue to deny that the Soviet Empire
played any role in creating Communist
puppet-regimes all over the world. The
Chomsky line avoids any discussion of
Soviet Imperialism. Instead we are
taught to believe that the Soviet-spon-
sored socialist revolutions in Cuba,
Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, et al
were simply spontaneous uprisings
against “American AR L

 
  

strike the nati
Immediately af
rushed a small t

   
 
 

 
   
   

 
     
    

cial left-wing lin
attack, namely thai

    
     
      
 

   
 
 
  

    
 
 
  
 

   
     

 
   
   
 
 

fing f free from US-ces for anos half
a century, and remains as poor as ever.

The citizens of these countries cannot -

home-made rafts as they struggle t
the tyrannical rule th

  

  

 

  
   
   
 
  
    
 

    

cribing the Communist dicta-
North Vietnam as a beacon
justice’ he is also on the
rd for describing Grenada’s bloody
rxist coup of 1983 as a “mild social
experiment’ and the well-documented
atrocities of Cambodia's Marxist dicta-

   

OF course,
words, and

     
  
  
  
  
 
 

  
 
  

 
 
 
 
 

yy an astonishing coincidence, ever _ asking
since the Soviet Union collapsed the America. T|
United States no longer bothers itself 1
with quashing the “good examples’ of
socialism. Extremist left-wingers have
once again started popping up in gov-
ernments all over the world, including
Venezuela, Brazil, and Haiti, to name
but three. By Chomsky logi the Us
should be moving rapidly to quas
these threats to the flawed cap

ology, but instead
interested. There

   
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
   
  
   
 
 

 

on tagline from his may

s a brilliantly constructed
he same vein of his “threat
continued on page 8

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