Chomsky on leadership

[RGacky3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCxDtADnzu8&feature=related

Comments, I personally totally agree, with both points.

[Dean]

Still waiting on your source for Chomsky calling himself conservative...

[RGacky3]

One is the book Chomskies politics p. 188, he does on other occasions call himself a conservative in the traditional sense.


"According to Chomsky, classical liberal ideals have been 'perverted into an ideology to sustain the emerging social order' (For Reasons of State, p.156). Since the 1930's, Chomsky notes, the term "liberalism" has come to mean 'a commitment to the use of state power for welfare purposes' (Language and Politics, p.656), rather than the restriction of state power. Chomsky also notes that the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' have switched meanings. ... He comments, 'A modern conservative, like Taft, wants to cut back state power, cut back state intervention in the economy -- the same as someone like Mark Hatfield -- to preserve the Enlightenment ideals of freedom of expression, freedom from state violence, of law-abiding states, etc. (Language and Politics, p. 656)."

Also


Take the term "conservative." Conservative is supposed to be a good thing, and this is supposed to be a conservative administration. A true conservative like, say, Robert Taft, would turn over in his grave to see what's being called conservative. Everything the conservatives have always fought against is being advanced by this administration. This administration is in favor of extending the power of the state and increasing the intervention of the state in the economy. State power has increased faster under this administration than under any since the Second World War. It's also interested in protecting the state against its citizens, cutting down access to the state, controlling thought, controlling expression, attacking civil liberties, attacking individual rights. It's the most lawless administration we've ever had. All of these things are anathema to conservatives. Conservatives want the opposite in every respect, so naturally they call the administration conservative, and if you like it you're supposed to be conservative. These are all ways of undermining the possibility of independent thought, by eliminating even the tools that you can use to engage in it.

From http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporate_Media/Terrorism_Chomsky_STP.html

Anyway, he has done it various times, refering to traditional conservatism.

[Rafiq]

I'm confused...

[RGacky3]

don't worry ignore the last 2 posts, they are leftovers from another thread.

[Svoboda]

Still waiting on your source for Chomsky calling himself conservative...
I know I heard him say he was and looked for the quote and I just found it relatively quickly. Here's the direct quote from him "the Reaganites are not conservatives. I'm much more conservative than they are. Any old time conservative would turn over in his grave if he could see how the term conservative was used in the 1980s."

I found it in an interview on this website
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1992----.htm
He said it in answer to the fifth question.