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The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky

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The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky The quality of Edgley’s work is very high. The exposition of Chomsky’s work is always clear and judicious. Edgley provides a sound treatment of the material and pays excellent attention to the broader context of the argument…. In the existing literature there is nothing quite like this in its treatment of Chomsky. Professor David McLellan, University of Kent This book explores the theoretical framework that enables Chomsky to be consistently radical in his analysis of contemporary political affairs. It argues that, far from Chomsky being a ‘conspiracy theorist’, his approach is embedded within a systematic philosophical understanding of human nature, combined with critical perspectives on the state, nationalism and the media. When compared to Marxist, liberal and cultural relativist thought, Chomsky’s libertarian socialist thought provides coherent grounds for a militant optimism. The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky questions Chomsky’s claim not to have a theory about the relationship between human beings and their society other than that which can be ‘written on the back of a postage stamp’. Edgley compares Chomsky’s vision of the good society with liberal and communitarian perspectives, and establishes that it is grounded in a hopeful belief about human nature. She argues that sympathy with this vision of the good society is essential for understanding the nature of Chomsky’s critique of state capitalism, its inherent nationalism and the media. The author concludes that Chomsky’s analysis is coherent and systematic when one acknowledges that he is not just a critic but a theorist. One of the few serious academic studies of Chomsky’s political writing, this volume addresses many key issues in political theory through an engagement with Chomsky’s ideas. Subjects covered include equality and freedom, politics and the media, nationalism and state capitalism. The Social and Political Thought ii of Noam Chomsky is an essential resource for scholars of social and political thought. Alison Edgley is Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Thought at Canterbury Christ Church University College. Her articles have been published in journals such as Politics and Talking Politics. Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought 1 Hayek and After Hayekian liberalism as a research programme Jeremy Shearmur 2 Conflicts in Social Science Edited by Anton van Harskamp 3 Political Thought of André Gorz Adrian Little 4 Corruption, Capitalism and Democracy John Girling 5 Freedom and Culture in Western Society Hans Blokland 6 Freedom in Economics New perspectives in normative analysis Edited by Jean-Francois Laslier, Marc Fleurbaey, Nicolas Gravel and Alain Trannoy 7 Against Politics On government, anarchy and order Anthony de Jasay 8 Max Weber and Michel Foucault Parallel life works Arpad Szakolczai 9 The Political Economy of Civil Society and Human Rights G.B.Madison 10 On Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life Edited by W.S.F.Pickering, W.Watts Miller and N.J.Allen 11 Classical Individualism The supreme importance of each human being Tibor R.Machan 12 The Age of Reasons Quixotism, sentimentalism and political economy in eighteenth-century Britain Wendy Motooka 13 Individualism in Modern Thought From Adam Smith to Hayek Lorenzo Infantino iv 14 Property and Power in Social Theory A study in intellectual rivalry Dick Pels 15 Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory A Critique of Giddens, Habermas and Bhaskar Nigel Pleasants 16 Marxism and Human Nature Sean Sayers 17 Goffman and Social Organization Studies in a sociological legacy Edited by Greg Smith 18 Situating Hayek Phenomenology in the neo-liberal project Mark J.Smith 19 The Reading of Theoretical Texts Peter Ekegren 20 The Nature of Capital Marx after Foucault Richard Marsden 21 The Age of Chance Gambling in Western Culture Gerda Reith 22 Reflexive Historical Sociology Arpad Szakolczai 23 Durkheim and Representations Edited by W.S.F.Pickering 24 The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky Alison Edgley 25 Hayek’s Liberalism and Its Origins C.Petsoulas 26 Metaphor and the Dynamics of Knowledge Sabine Maasen and Peter Weingart 27 Living with Markets Jeremy Shearmur The Social and Political Thought of Noam Chomsky Alison Edgley London and New York First published 2000 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2000 Alison Edgley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Edgley, Alison, 1963– The social and political thought of Noam Chomsky/ Alison Edgley. p. cm.—(Routledge studies in social and political thought) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-20586-7 (hb) 1. Chomsky, Noam—Political and social views. I. Title. II. Series. P85.C47 E34 2000 410′.92–dc21 99–055601 ISBN 0-203-00625-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-20586-7 (Print Edition) For my father, Roy Edgley Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction: Chomsky—critic or theorist? 1 1 Political theory 11 2 The ‘good society’ 42 3 State capitalism 78 4 State theory 101 5 Nationalism 123 6 Politics and the media 147 Conclusion: Chomsky—militant optimist 176 Bibliography 185 Index 192 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Ian Forbes not only for his love, friendship and practical support but also for his relentless and rigorous intellectual criticism. Thanks too to Amy for sleeping so peacefully thereby allowing me to complete the final stages. I would also like to thank the following people: Noam Chomsky for corresponding and meeting with me; David McLellan for his encouragement of the project at its inception and for supervising these ideas in their doctoral form; Peter Wilkin and Fred Inglis for enthusiastic support and their comments on an earlier draft; Sean Sayers, Joe McCarney and the numerous others who attended David’s Lentil Seminars for useful comments; my friend Sue Davies for her friendship and for the twilight editing we did. Lastly, I would like to thank my family but especially my father, Roy Edgley, who bought me my first Chomsky volume and who read everything and discussed the ideas at every painful stage of the book’s development. Tragically for me he has not survived to see the book finally published. Introduction Chomsky—critic or theorist? How are we to characterise Noam Chomsky’s political writings? Certainly it is notable that Chomsky’s political work is to a great extent marginalised within academic circles. His writings rarely appear on undergraduate reading lists nor do they, on the whole, enter the fray of mainstream debates about social and political organisation. There are perhaps only two areas where this is an exception: media studies and international relations. Given that Chomsky has been writing prolifically on just about every political issue one might care to think of for over thirty years, what reasons may be offered to explain this? It might be suggested that there is a degree of intellectual snobbery attached to the perhaps subconscious decision within the academic community not to give his ideas in this area serious consideration. In other words he is regarded first and foremost as a linguist, and it is therefore inappropriate that he should cross intellectual boundaries and enter debates about subjects that are deemed to lie beyond his academic expertise. Chomsky explains that this argument has indeed been used. Some academics from The University of Victoria in British Columbia for example tried to stop him speaking and ‘they published letters in the press, etc., saying that since I’m a linguist, I shouldn’t be allowed to talk about “their field”’.1 This is perhaps paradoxical given that Chomsky is accorded wide acclaim as Professor of Linguistics at MIT and that he quite literally generated a revolution within his discipline. Indeed, he has been described by the New York Times as ‘arguably the most important intellectual alive’.2 How can it be that someone of such apparent eminence is not worthy of consideration when it comes to his views on social and political organisation? As Chomsky himself points out with some amusement, ‘If you go back and look at the context of that remark, the sentence was: “arguably the most important intellectual alive, how can he write such nonsense about international affairs and foreign policy?”’3 To have come to such a strong conclusion about Chomsky’s work on issues unrelated to linguistics suggests one of two things. Either he does just dabble in political issues, and is therefore perhaps unaware of significant developments in the field. Or careful consideration has been given to his views, and they have been found wanting in some way. However, neither can be said to be the case. On the first point, one only needs to take a quick look at a list of the books and articles he has written on political issues over the years, to see that this is no passing 2 THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT OF NOAM CHOMSKY interest. Within the books are copious references to numerous pieces of research and publications, both government sponsored and otherwise, demonstrating his prodigious appetite for knowledge in this area.
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