NOAM CHOMSKY POWERS AND PROSPECTS Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order ESSENTIAL CLASSICS IN POLITICS: NOAM CHOMSKY EB 0007 ISBN 0 7453 1345 0 London 1999 The Electric Book Company Ltd Pluto Press Ltd 20 Cambridge Drive 345 Archway Rd London SE12 8AJ, UK London N6 5AA, UK www.elecbook.com www.plutobooks.com © Noam Chomsky 1999 Limited printing and text selection allowed for individual use only. All other reproduction, whether by printing or electronically or by any other means, is expressly forbidden without the prior permission of the publishers. This file may only be used as part of the CD on which it was first issued. Powers and Prospects Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order NOAM CHOMSKY Pluto Press London 4 First published in the United Kingdom 1996 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA Copyright 1996 © Diane Chomsky Irrevocable Trust The right of Aviva Chomsky and Eric F. Menoyo, as trustees of the Diane Chomsky Trust, to be identified as the owners of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7453 1107 5 hbk Classics in Politics: Powers and Prospects Noam Chomsky 5 Foreword by Agio Pereira rofessor Noam Chomsky is not a single issue activist. His range of influence transcends the boundaries of campaigns for social Pjustice and self-determination, the field in which the East Timorese have been forced by war to learn and to become specialists. It was with great honour that a small team embraced the gigantic role of coordinating the visit of Professor Chomsky to Australia in January 1995. Gigantic, not only because it was the first visit to Australia from a man with the stature of Professor Chomsky, but also because of the timing of the visit itself—it took place in the usual period of ‘summer holidays’ of the mainstream Australian media. It also coincided with the visits of Pope John Paul II and the visit of the Microsoft tycoon, Bill Gates—you could say Chomsky completed the trinity The consolation for us was that, at an early stage, it was clear that the focus of Professor Chomsky’s visit to Australia was to be the issue of East Timor. It was therefore a litmus test for the support the Australian people have been lending to the 20-year-old struggle of the Timorese people to conquer their piece of freedom. Having a controversial person like Noam Chomsky in Australia associated with yet another controversial issue such as East Timor, no one could foresee exactly how everything was going to play out. There were many people speculating about possible outcomes, but a clear picture was far off from even the most experienced organisers of public Classics in Politics: Powers and Prospects Noam Chomsky 6 events. However, no one could have predicted the enormous response to his visit. Being Timorese, as a matter of tradition, we pay tribute to those who support and respect us, by making sure that our role as hosts becomes as effective as possible to the point where when a guest departs, the feeling of returning is stronger than that carried in their arrival. The first I heard of Professor Chomsky was in the late 1970s when I’d heard he paid from his own pocket for some Timorese refugees to fly to the USA to speak out about the tragedy of the people of East Timor. I was later very delighted when I learnt that he presented a paper in the first session of the ‘People’s Tribunal’ for East Timor, held in Lisbon in 1981. That was the time when the Resistance of East Timor was going through extremely difficult times. The deaths of charismatic leaders such as President Nicolau Lobato, Vicente Sahe and many others, brought the morale of the Maubere Resistance to a very low point. This was at the time when Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao was reorganising the struggle. At that time of ‘soul searching’ Professor Chomsky lent his undeniable support for the people of East Timor. On meeting Professor Chomsky for the first time at the Sydney International Airport, his humbleness was so familiar to me that I felt we had known each other for many years. His approach to human interaction was as Maubere as one can reach, and this made our task much easier. As the program of public addresses and media work was implemented, we learnt that the Chomsky factor and East Timor were a deadly combination. The Chomsky factor was critical in the sixties and still is critical today for those who search for basic explanations of the increasingly sophisticated machine of manipulation of public opinion. East Timor after 20 years has become a thorn in the conscience of those Classics in Politics: Powers and Prospects Noam Chomsky 7 in the world who struggle for fundamental justice and values of human beings. In this struggle, both Professor Chomsky and East Timor are Davids against Goliath. The combination of the conscience of the people of East Timor and Professor Chomsky has proved to be too powerful for those who tried to defeat us. Perhaps it was this sense of being in the same trench and defending fundamental justice that made us feel that Professor Chomsky is part of us; and that was a turning point in the way we perceive Chomsky. Because, in the end, our sense of being hosts of a special guest was replaced with a much bigger one: that our home was richer with the sense of freedom Chomsky’s visit helped us reach. Even though Noam Chomsky is no longer in Australia fighting for the people of East Timor, we do rely on his support. We know that wherever he is, he will fight for the freedom for our people. That was the impression he left not only with the 16 000 or more people he spoke directly to during his visit, but also with those he reached through the media, and I hope now through this book. This book testifies to how dedicated Professor Chomsky is to the issues he embraces in his active pursuit of freedom and fundamental justice. From linguistics to the Middle East, from foreign affairs to the role of the media, from intellectual responsibility to East Timor, Noam—as he asked us to call him—refuses to accept complexity and imperfection as an excuse to violate fundamental principles of human beings. Agio Pereira is the executive director of the East Timor Relief Association, and an adviser to the National Council for Maubere Resistance (CNRM). Classics in Politics: Powers and Prospects Noam Chomsky 8 Contents Click on contents to go to page Foreword..................................................................................... 5 Preface ..................................................................................... 11 1 Language and Thought: Some Reflections on Venerable Themes...................................................................... 14 The First Cognitive Revolution ................................................... 15 The Second Cognitive Revolution ............................................... 28 The Language Faculty .............................................................. 30 Unification Problems................................................................ 36 Knowledge of Language............................................................ 41 2 Language and Nature .............................................................. 55 Naturalism and Language–World Relations: Weak and Strong Theses................................................................... 55 The Materialist Orthodoxy......................................................... 65 The Externalist Orthodoxy ......................................................... 75 Language as a Natural Object ................................................... 85 3 Writers and Intellectual Responsibility....................................... 87 4 Goals and Visions.................................................................. 107 Goals versus Visions ...............................................................108 The ‘Humanistic Conception’....................................................114 ‘The New Spirit of the Age’ ......................................................117 Voices of Resistance ...............................................................127 ‘Tough Love’ ..........................................................................133 Classics in Politics: Powers and Prospects Noam Chomsky 9 5 Democracy and Markets in the New World Order...................... 139 ‘Enduring Truths’....................................................................139 Markets in the Real World .......................................................148 Democracy: ‘Containing the People’ ..........................................158 ‘Free Market Conservatism’......................................................174 Towards the End of History: the Utopia of the Masters.................................................................................185 6 The Middle East Settlement: Its Sources and Contours ................................................................................. 191 ‘What We Say Goes’ ...............................................................191 The Strategic Conception.........................................................197 ‘Stalemate’ ............................................................................207 ‘Victor’s Peace’: the Oslo Agreements........................................212 Terror and Punishment............................................................222 Development Programs and Plans.............................................227