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DUAL_CHOMSKY

                                              January   9, 2007
                                              September 2, 2013

                                                         Originally part of
 Noam Chomsky,
 "Problems of Knowledge and Freedom" (1971)                NAUGHT_SEVEN

      A book based on a pair of lectures,
      loosely organized as tributes to
      Bertrand Russell, who I belatedly
      realize is one of Chomsky's heroes.

      The first half of the book
      focuses on Chomsky's speculations          When I started reading
      about the biological roots of              the book, I didn't quite
      human language abilities.                  grasp that the material
                                                 dates back to 1971.
      The second half is Chomsky
      discussing the way the American               I kept thinking
      view of the world is warped by                "don't we have
      US propaganda, with emphasis on               better data on
      the Vietnam war period.                       this issue by
                                                    now?"
         I've been assuming that the
         present horrible state of the                 Essentially,
         news media is a relatively                    Chomsky points out
         recent phenomena, post-1996                   that human language
         telecom act, perhaps post-9/11...             follows some oddly
                                                       involved rules,
         But Chomsky has been patiently                where simpler ones
         tracking problems like this for               can be easily
         much longer.                                  imagined.

                                                          He suggests there
                                                          are hints here of
                                                          "language universals"
                                                          and "a priori"
       "Since the ideology of anti-communism              human capabilities.
       no longer serves to mobilize the
       population, there will be, it is safe                 I.e. children
       to predict, a search for some new                     master language
       technique of social control, perhaps a                at an early
       continuing effort to replace the no                   age, but physics
       longer credible communist threat by                   only with much
       some terrifying image of left-wing                    difficulty.
       students allied with ethnic minorities
       and Third World revolutionaries,                        Can we then
       threatening to tear down the pillars                    say that humans
       of civilized society.  It is hardly                     are inherently
       surprising that some of the people who                  linguistic,
       helped convert a justified opposition                   but not
       to 'communist' totalitarianism into a                   inherently
       paranoid anti-communist crusade are                     mathematical?
       now attacking the student movement
       with the techniques of distortion,
       innuendo, and exaggeration, and with
       some success."

                    Noam Chomsky
                    "Problems of Knowledge
                    and Freedom" (1971)
                    p. 84


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