Clever follow-up title, no?
Yesterday I watched the film Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. It was a long, but very thought-provoking, look at Noam Chomsky's work and his views on American media. Chomsky is one of those activist intellectuals that is loved by many and hated by many. The film made me really appreciate Chomsky's views.
Chomsky is a linguistics professor at MIT. Apparently, he sparked a "Chomskian revolution" in linguistics with his theory of a universal grammar. Later, he determined that he had to become involved with politics. He's since become famous for his frank defiance of conventional wisdom which stems from his anarcho-syndicalist views. In the documentary, he basically propounds the view that whereas in a totalitarian society the people are coerced by force, coercion occurs in the war of ideas in democracy. The government and large corporations, then, control what the media does in order to serve their best interests (i.e. capital in the case of business, submission in the form of government). His views are very well-articulated, and I think quite valid. For example, he asserts that the media must be accused of a liberal bias in a democratic society because that's what defines the boundaries of criticism ("this far, but no further").
I would very much like to be a Noam Chomsky of Christianity. Someone who defies conventions and attacks all we hold dear for the sake of truth. Chomsky does this with democracy, and I think he does it quite well. While I may not ever be an anarcho-syndicalist, I appreciate his rigorously thoughtful and consistent approach. Its similar to how Destroyer is for music and how Nietzsche was for philosophy. Nietzsche had his "philosopher's hammer" to make sure that we set no further idol up in the place of a deceased god.
That's who I want to be for American Christianity.
Today I went to the CRC again, followed by lunch and grocery-shopping. Then I watched a movie called Paradise Now. It's about suicide bombers in Palastine; it's a good movie. I definitely recommend it if you're interested in Palastine.
That's all for now. I am feeling pretty discouraged these days that I'm not getting much accomplished as far as research (or anything else) goes.
Peace,
Sam
2 comments:
get 'em, Palestine.
--you know who.
Good stuff, man. I am also not a big fan of the media, but I think its critics often tend to be too vague to be useful. Have you ever heard of Jean Baudrillard? (Haha, you can't answer that cause this is a blog). He's another very cool conspiracy-theory-type sociologist/semiologist. I'll have to let you borrow a book when we get back to school.
Also for the record, I am anti-Universal Grammer, although I think Chompsky is ridiculously awesome.
And one of my friends here in Otown recently acquired a bumper sticker that reads "Nietzsche Saves."
-Charlie
p.s. Today's code word is "Epysqipa"
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