Noam Chomsky

[Nickademus]

Let me premise this by saying that I love Dr. chomsky's works, literary works that his. Him and Michael Parenti got me involved in politics when i was a teen.

having said that, last weekend I attended a rally against the occupation of Iraq here in BC (Canada for those of you who don't know) and he was the feature speaker. the speakers before him were great .. they had the crowd roaring and pumped up and i know everyone there was excited to hear mr chomsky speak. so with much anticipation, mr chomsky finally comes forward on the podium and steps up to the mic. you can hear the silence as people are waiting to hang off of his every word with great fervour. he spoke.... but no one could hear.... he spoke... but didn't change his tone of voice ... he spoke...but didn't show any emotion .... he spoke ... but he was bad at it. really and truly i feel that i get more emotion and fervour out of reading his books than i do out of his speaking.

so i guess my question is whether or not anyone else has had a simliar experience as this with regards to dear mr chomsky? does anyone else think he should give up the public speaking engagements ... i know i'll never go hear him speak again.

any thoughts?

[timbaly]

First off I must say that it has been an extremely long time since I remember seeing you post here. the last time I recall was when you were appointed to be a board monitor.

Anyway I remember seeing him once on TV giving a speech about a real contriversial issue at the time. He didn't seem that bad to me, he definetely wasn't at a proffesional level, but it didn't seem as bad as you make it out to be.

[Nickademus]

yeah it has been a very very long time since i've been here. i went through some major issues my last year of school then i spent some time backpacking around canada. i'm finally starting to get settled a bit again so i decided to pop back in and see how the board was doing.

anyway perhaps he is more suited to tv than a rally. i've never seen him on tv, but i can imagine he's much better there. rallies are supposed to excite and educate ... but he didn't seem to excite the crowd at all. hell half of the people couldn't even hear him.

i was just very disappointed... it would have been like goign to see dr martin luther king jr speak and he turns out sounding like ben stien.

[SonofRage]

Chomsky is an interesting speaker...but he mumbles (which he admits) and isn't well-suited for any type of rally.

[El Che]

He is very intellectual in the way he speaks and presents his case. Very dry. Personally I like his style but I see your point.

P.S: welcome back!

[El Che]

He mumbles. lol.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

Somebody gave me a CD where he talks about somethuing or other.
that's the only time I've heard him, and I believe you completely.
The thing is full of "umm..." and "er..." and "hmmm..."
You can hear his breath very loudly.
And not to mention that he speaks with no enthusiasm.
But his books are pure genius that blow intelectualized humor crap like Moore and Franken out of the water. :)

[Nickademus]

i'm glad there are people out there who agree with me. and he is a brilliant man but that doesn't make him a great speaker. hell give me his words and i'll speak next time. i'll have the crowd in a roar!.

p.s. -- thanx el che

[cubist]

i like him as a writer but i have never heard him speak to comment

[Marxist in Nebraska]

Chomsky is guilty of being a monotone. He is not the easiest speaker to listen to, but I can do alright if I am listening to a CD or watching a video alone, so I can concentrate. I would probably go to see him speak, if he came around here, but mostly to say that I had seen him in person I think.

[Eastside Revolt]

Yeah it soooo chokes me up that I missed that, but I just couldn&#39;t get the time off work (god damn understaffing <_< ).

I&#39;m a passionate person so just hearing someone say something with meaning, can hype me up. I would agree though that when you are at protests it feels much better when everyone else is hyped-up too. Alot of the time, you need someone speaking in everyday dialect to do that, some intellectual just isn&#39;t gonna cut it :P .

[elijahcraig]

He speaks like I do, so I relate.