USA terror state - stalinism corporatism totalitarian v2.0

Chomsky discusses the American 'culture of imperialism'
By Ben Kotopka
Staff Writer

Published: Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Much of American military policy is terrorism, 81-year-old linguist and cultural critic Noam Chomsky argued before a crowd of roughly 450 audience members in McCosh 50 on Monday evening.

In the lecture, “I am Kinda,” Chomsky described a “culture of imperialism” that implicates the United States in political crises from the Russian Civil War to the present-day poverty of Haiti.

In addition to McCosh 50, the two other rooms where the lecture was simulcast in two other rooms that filled to capacity.

“We did have to turn away a lot of people,” Public Safety officer Dorothy Tilghman said.

Chomsky devoted the majority of his hour-long lecture to a scathing critique of American foreign policy. He faulted presidents from Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, to Barack Obama for their foreign policy records and accused the American media of enabling American imperialism.

While covering a century of world history, Chomsky framed his speech around the moments following a lecture he delivered in 2006. After listening to his speech in Beirut, a young Libyan woman â€" who had lost her home and sister in an American bombing raid in 1986 â€" approached Chomsky with the words, “I am Kinda.” Chomsky had heard of Kinda’s name from a letter to then-President Ronald Reagan, which Kinda wrote and left in the ruins of her home, asking why Americans had attacked her family.

“Is it true you want to kill us all because my father is Palestinian and you want to kill [Libyan President Moammar] Kadafi because he wants to help us go back to my father’s home and land?” Chomsky quoted the letter as saying.

Calling educational institutions “responsible for the indoctrination of the young,” Chomsky praised college students who combat cultural imperialism. He cited recent protests against tuition hikes at public universities in California as evidence that the activist streak has continued in today’s youth.

Chomsky said that in reacting to “an excess of democracy” in the 1960s, institutions attempt to control students.

“They try to ensure that students will come out of college with a heavy debt,” he explained.

The noted scholar, who gained prominence in the 1950s for his work on linguistic and psychological theory, has continued to write, speak and publish prolifically ever since, authoring more than 90 books. His reputation for fierce criticism of American foreign policy came later, beginning with his opposition to the Vietnam War.

Audience reactions to the lecture were largely positive.

“I think it’s generally true that America is very imperialist â€" they tend to stick their butts in other countries’ business where they shouldn’t be,” said Jennifer Tang ’13, who said she first encountered Chomsky’s work through her writing seminar on American imperialism.

“I like his viewpoint, but I think I’d have to do more research before I’d change my opinion,” she added.

The lecture was the seventh annual lecture given in memory of Palestinian rights advocate Edward W. Said, and was sponsored by the Department of English and the Princeton Committee on Palestine.

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