“Impressions of Gaza”

Washington State University video talk, Imminent Crises: Responsibilities and Opportunities (April 22, 2005).

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KUOW audio interview, On the New Iraqi Government (April 20, 2005).

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The Seattle Times interview article on Chomsky, It's Time to Take Back our Lives, by Jerry Large (April 21, 2005): "Noam Chomsky is a prodigious generator of books, articles and speeches, who has been talking about politics and world affairs since he was a kid. He made his living as a linguistics professor at MIT and achieved world renown in that role, but his name is stuck in the back of all of our heads because of his ubiquitous political commentaries over the past half-century."

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Just released:

Government in the Future By Noam Chomsky

In this classic talk delivered at the Poetry Center, New York, on February 16, 1970, Noam Chomsky articulates a clear, uncompromising vision of social change. Chomsky contrasts the classical liberal, libertarian socialist, state socialist, and state capitalist world views and then defends a libertarian socialist vision as "the proper and natural extension . . . of classical liberalism into the era of advanced industrial society." In his stirring conclusion Chomsky argues, "We have today the technical and material resources to meet man's animal needs. We have not developed the cultural and moral resources or the democratic forms of social organization that make possible the humane and rational use of our material wealth and power. Conceivably, the classical liberal ideals as expressed and developed in their libertarian socialist form are achievable. But if so, only by a popular revolutionary movement, rooted in wide strata of the population and committed to the elimination of repressive and authoritarian institutions, state and private. To create such a movement is a challenge we face and must meet if there is to be an escape from contemporary barbarism."

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Technology and Culture Forum (MIT) video talk, The Idea of Universality in Linguistics and Human Rights (March 15, 2005): "About quite a few years ago, in the 1960s, I agreed in a weak moment to give a talk with the title 'Language and Freedom.' And when the time came to think about it I realized I might have something to say about language, and about freedom, but the word 'and' was posing a serious problem. There is a possible strand that connects language and freedom --actually, it has an interesting history of exploring it-- but in substance it's pretty thing and speculative. Not surprisingly I have the same problem today. There are useful things, I think, to say about universality in language and also about universality of human rights, but that troublesome connective is still raising difficulties. The only way I can think of dealing with the dilemma is saying a bit about each of the two topics, with barely a hint about the conjunction, leaving that problem for you to deal with." [Chomsky's talk begins at 6:58]

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Anarchist Studies article on Chomsky, Common Sense: Golden Goose or Propaganda?, by Tom Jennings (1995): "Current grass roots campaigns and movements for self-determination can be interpreted as part of a general questioning of State authority and the imperious logic of global capitalism. Noam Chomsky's analyses of US foreign policy and its news media rationalisations complement his academic studies of language and philosophy. Throughout, he insists that the common sense rationality of ordinary people is crucial for resisting the blandishments of propaganda and as a creative, potentially libertarian basis for political mobilisation against the New World Order."

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New Left Review article on Chomsky, Knowledge, Morality and Hope: The Social Thought of Noam Chomsky, by Joshua Cohen & Joel Rogers (May/June, 1991): "The characteristic focus, intensity and hopefulness of Chomsky's political writings [...] reflect a set of more fundamental views about human nature, justice and social order that are not simple matters of fact. This article explores these more fundamental ideas, the central elements in Chomsky's social thought. We begin (section i) by sketching the relevant features of Chomsky's conception of human nature. We then examine his libertarian social ideals (section ii), and views on social stability and social evolution (section iii), both of which are animated by this conception of our nature."

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Just released:

America's Unpatriotic Acts By Walter M. Brasch This lucid and well-documented study of the PATRIOT Act and related government initiatives quotes Benjamin Franklin's argument that "They who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." The study reveals in meticulous detail how far we have traveled down that road, and what may lie ahead if we do not heed Franklin's warning. Noam Chomsky

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