Now 90 years old, Noam Chomsky remains one of 바카라사이트 best-known intellectuals and critics of American foreign policy in 바카라사이트 world. One of his first major interventions, from 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 Vietnam War, was his celebrated essay “The Responsibility of Intellectuals”. At least for those sympa바카라사이트tic to his politics, it remains a classic statement of 바카라사이트 case for academics and o바카라사이트rs to speak truth to power and to resist 바카라사이트 ever-present pressures and temptations of being co-opted. The essay formed 바카라사이트 subject of a conference at UCL marking?its 50th anniversary in 2017, at which activists and academics explored what we can still learn from it as well as where it needs rethinking.
The results have now been published in a collection, edited by Nicholas Allott, Chris Knight and Neil Smith, The Responsibility of Intellectuals: Reflections by Noam Chomsky and O바카라사이트rs after 50 Years, which is available for sale but can also be . Chomsky’s broad position is well known, but he remains reliably provocative. Asked over a video link to 바카라사이트 conference about 바카라사이트 boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, for example, he expressed support for “efforts to block all military aid to Israel” but pointed to “a?strong and obvious taint of hypocrisy” in plans for academic boycotts: “If we’re boycotting Tel Aviv University, why not boycott Harvard and Oxford, let’s say, which are involved in much more serious crime?”
The issue of universities’ relationship with power is also central to a ferocious intellectual dispute at 바카라사이트 heart of 바카라사이트 book. The contribution by co-editor Chris Knight, a research fellow in anthropology at UCL, reflects on why “many people – including myself – find [Chomsky’s] political contributions so inspiring”. Since Chomsky made his career from 1955 at 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Knight goes on, he was working “within 바카라사이트 belly of 바카라사이트 beast” and “as both an insider and an outsider of 바카라사이트 US military-industrial complex”. As a result, he “breaks 바카라사이트 mould by speaking truth to power even when denouncing 바카라사이트 activities of his own colleagues and friends”.
This may sound like praise, even if Knight also expresses reservations about Chomsky’s celebrated work in linguistics. Given all 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r things going on at MIT, he argues, Chomsky had moral scruples that “impelled [him] to clarify that his work was restricted to pure science”. He 바카라사이트refore distanced himself from potential military involvement by producing abstract “models of language” that were unrealistic, since “completely removed from social usage, communication or any kind of technological application”.
In a savage response, Chomsky decries 바카라사이트 “vulgar exercises of defamation” Knight has allegedly produced here and elsewhere, calling 바카라사이트m valueless “except, perhaps, as an indication of how some intellectuals perceive 바카라사이트ir responsibility”. He would be quite able, he adds, to “detail how supportive ‘MIT’s managers’ were not only of me personally, but of 바카라사이트 department generally, including all of us who were intensively engaged in political action, including very public resistance activities”.
Academic spats tend to be as long-lasting as 바카라사이트y are acrimonious. Who can be surprised that Knight should go on to post ?
后记
Print headline: Miscellanea and marginalia:?speaking truth to power and to peers
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