[Peace-discuss] WaPo: Liberals, Dems, Women Abandon Afghan War

[Morton K. Brussel]

Chomsky not so infrequently over reaches, as in the assertions below.

Chomsky puts students on the same level as their teachers; most  
students do not have confidence enough, knowledge enough, or are not  
well read or experienced enough to challenge what is being told to  
them in their classes. They do not have enough self command to say to  
their teachers: That's a ridiculous lie. You're an idiot .

Perhaps Chomsky is projecting onto others his own experience, but I  
don't believe that that's an extrapolation that should be made.

But yes, I would agree that students generally do not have enough  
skepticism inbred in them in their prior lives.

One should also be skeptical of Chomsky, all the while respecting  
generally what he has to say.

--mkb


On Aug 20, 2009, at 2:32 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> I don't think he goes far enough. I'd say there are certain things  
> it wouldn't do to think. A good education instills in you the  
> intuitive comprehension--it becomes unconscious and reflexive--that  
> you just don't think certain things, things that are threatening to  
> power interests.
>
> Not everyone accepts this. But most of us, if we are honest with  
> ourselves, can look back at our own personal history. For those of  
> us who got into good colleges or the professions, did we stand up to  
> that high school history teacher who told us some ridiculous lie  
> about American history and say, "That's a ridiculous lie. You're an  
> idiot"? No. We said, "All right, I'll keep quiet, and I'll write it  
> in the exam and I'll think, yes, he's an idiot." And it's easy to  
> say and believe things that improve your self-image and your career  
> and that are in other ways beneficial to yourselves.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20090820/14044111/attachment.html