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2009-11-03 10:18:43
FEOS
Bellicose Yankee Air Pirate
+1,182|6698|'Murka

CameronPoe wrote:

FEOS wrote:

He writes books, doesn't he? I'm sure in writing books he has plenty of time to lay out an actionable plan to implement his concepts.

But he doesn't.

Because he's just a grumpy old codger who likes to bitch. And there's a bunch of doe-eyed youngsters who buy into his schtick.
He does write books correct. Why should we seek an alternative from him? We have to devise one ourselves. We have to take action ourselves. We have to influence the reality we find ourselves in ourselves. We are personally responsible for doing something, some part small or large, to address the many festering political sores we have to live with. Anything less would be laziness. Do we need a 'new system'? How about working towards changing the existing one? We have valuable new tools in their infancy at our disposal, like the internet, which can free us somewhat from the propaganda of mass media. Being grumpy is A-O-K with me - list out the flaws in our society and let us attempt to address them. Apathy and a 'that's just the way it is' attitude is fucking deplorable. One should listen to old people and their life experience and ideas, if not just to learn something you might not yet have learned in the course of your far shorter life. You can agree or disagree, but lending them your ear is not exactly a reprehensible act.
Lending an ear? Sure.

I'd have to agree with Uzique that Chomsky's views on Libertarianism are probably something more actionable or admirable. I just don't see anarcho-syndicalism as anything other than a pie-in-the-sky extremist hippie dream that ignores basic human nature.

My point being that I think it's incumbent upon one who casts aspersions on the current system to offer up alternatives to the current system. Don't come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution. In the case of Chomsky, most of what he does is point out problems, with little to nothing in the way of potential solutions...certainly very little--if anything--that can be acted upon.

Hence the term "grumpy old man". He complains, but then does fuck all about it.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein
Doing the popular thing is not always right. Doing the right thing is not always popular
2009-11-03 10:24:37
CameronPoe
Member
+2,925|6842

FEOS wrote:

Lending an ear? Sure.

I'd have to agree with Uzique that Chomsky's views on Libertarianism are probably something more actionable or admirable. I just don't see anarcho-syndicalism as anything other than a pie-in-the-sky extremist hippie dream that ignores basic human nature.

My point being that I think it's incumbent upon one who casts aspersions on the current system to offer up alternatives to the current system. Don't come to me with a problem, come to me with a solution. In the case of Chomsky, most of what he does is point out problems, with little to nothing in the way of potential solutions...certainly very little--if anything--that can be acted upon.

Hence the term "grumpy old man". He complains, but then does fuck all about it.
That's fair enough. I see value in his aspersions and identification of the problems and can set aside my thoughts on his own laissez-faire attitude towards change. His main 'action plan' if you can call it that was for people to become more activist such that governments might have to listen for a change, such as towards the end of the Vietnam war, etc. Galvanising that level of interest/non-apathy is a tough fucking call however. The odds are very much stacked up against those who aren't happy with the status quo.

Last edited by CameronPoe (2009-11-03 10:26:16)

2009-11-03 11:20:33
Uzique
dasein.
+2,865|6757
i see and agree with cam: chomsky isn't a "grumpy old man", as such -- it's probably better phrased that he just has a 'laissez-faire' attitude towards the action-plan and practical implementation. sure, some of his stuff may sound like hypothetical, hippie, pie-in-the-sky thinking... but that's all he is professing to be: he's a thinker, a philosopher of sorts, he's not interested in the pragmatic politics or the process of change beyond anything other than using his intellectual capacity and public-speaking ability/influence to galvanize the change.
libertarian benefit collector - anti-academic super-intellectual. http://mixlr.com/the-little-phrase/
2009-11-03 11:39:03
FEOS
Bellicose Yankee Air Pirate
+1,182|6698|'Murka

Uzique wrote:

i see and agree with cam: chomsky isn't a "grumpy old man", as such -- it's probably better phrased that he just has a 'laissez-faire' attitude towards the action-plan and practical implementation. sure, some of his stuff may sound like hypothetical, hippie, pie-in-the-sky thinking... but that's all he is professing to be: he's a thinker, a philosopher of sorts, he's not interested in the pragmatic politics or the process of change beyond anything other than using his intellectual capacity and public-speaking ability/influence to galvanize the change.
How long has he been using this ability?

How much change has he galvanized?

Seems like he needs to come up with a different plan.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein
Doing the popular thing is not always right. Doing the right thing is not always popular

 

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