Chomsky in the Westerkerk

The last time I saw Chomsky speak was 1994 in Chicago. Listening to him speak in Amsterdam today, I was amazed to calculate the time span: 17 years. And he does seem 17 years older (no doubt I do as well). He’s still able to be a very interesting speaker for an hour and ten minutes, he simply speaks more slowly and has a softer voice than I remember.

In no way do I agree with Chomsky on all subjects at all times, as many seem to do. On some issues I think he’s been not so hot. But he does have his very strong issues and his very strong moments. The recent uprisings in the Middle East are the sort of issue where he shines, because here he’s basically right. (My only disappointment: one sentence about how bad the Iranian government is, followed by multiple paragraphs about how hypocritical the U.S. government is for focusing on the Iranian government. The Iranian people deserved more from Chomsky than an extended poke in the American eye.)

One of the things Chomsky does very well is simply disseminate information of the sort that we don’t normally read about in Western media: not necessarily because it’s “censored,” but because it just doesn’t fit within the heavily truncated framework of those media, which often simply don’t care what non-first world governments think or do. His remarks on the Turkish and Brazilian view of Iran’s nuclear program, for example, were quite interesting, as was his report on what America’s own intelligence agencies concede to be the quite negligible ability of the Iranians to project power throughout the region. (Especially amusing was his report that General Petraeus said that the Iranian air force could be wiped out quickly by the air force of Qatar. I’d never heard that remark, though perhaps I simply wasn’t reading the news that day.)

In any case, it was a good way to spend an afternoon. He had 900 people there for his lecture, and he certainly held the attention of all 900. And he always gets your brain working.

(Photo by Roel Raterink: Chomsky in the Westerkerk, today.)