From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Fri May 28 2004 - 17:18:06 BST
Hi Anthony McWatt,
Thanks for taking the trouble to send us Noam Chomsky's recent talk. It
confirms what some have said about him, that he deals in distortions, half-
truths and outright lies. As an example of the latter, he claimed "an
increase of horrendous terrorists acts all over the world." The U.S. State
Department's annual terrorism report published April 29 this year shows a 45
percent decrease in such attacks since 2001.
More relevant to those still interested in discussing the MOQ is Chomsky's
attack on intellectuals who, according to him, are mere "acolytes of the
systems of power." Compare that to Pirsig's general praise of intellectuals,
especially those who established the rights of free speech, freedom of
religion, trial by jury, etc.
Although Chomsky condemns a so-called "doctrine of change of course," whose
founders and supporters are never identified (a conspiracy among
intellectuals I presume), and points to supposed historical "facts" to
blaspheme current leaders, he is hypocritically reluctant to talk about his
own past, such as his support for the Hippie movement of the 60s. No need to
remind moq.org readers of Pirsig's analysis of that sorry period in American
history.
Finally, Chomsky fails one of Pirsig's tests of truth--logical consistency.
(Never mind his appeal to polls which is a blatant case of the logical
fallacy of Argumentum ad Populum.) On the one hand, he takes the reports of
intelligence agencies as true that the Iraq invasion would increase the
threat of terror. On the the other, when intelligence agencies concluded that
Saddam had WMDs, Chomsky says "there was never any reason to believe there
was a particle of truth in that." There must be another logical fallacy in
there somewhere, like "using a source when it fits your agenda but ignoring
the same source when it doesn't." But, I guess I'll have to settle for
"double-talk," or "he speaks with forked tongue" as American Indians were
purported to say on occasion.
I'd be interested in your analysis of Chomsky's worldview vis a vis the MOQ
if you have time.
Thanks and best regards,
Platt
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