Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
I suppose it's not really breaking news to note that Noam Chomsky's an international pest, but man, is he an international pest. He's on a whirlwind tour of Turkey right now. Here's how his visit is being reported in the pro-AKP Today's Zaman:
Noam Chomsky Says Racism Behind European Resistance to Turkey.
Europe can claim with some justification that Turkey has not satisfied all of the human rights conditions. On the other hand, I don’t really think this is the reason. …I think it is plain racism." ....
According to Chomsky, the stalemate in the EU membership bid is one of the factors exacerbating tensions between Turkey and the West, simmering since 2003, when Turkey refused to allow US forces to use Turkish territory to open a northern front against Iraq. These tensions, in turn, hamper the reconciliatory role that Ankara wants to play between the Middle East and the West.
“Turkey is trying to play an intermediary role between Europe and the Middle East, which is a good position to maintain, but it’s difficult. And it’s particularly difficult because the US wants to make sure that it remains difficult,” said the renowned intellectual, giving the US reaction to a compromise deal on Iran’s nuclear enrichment brokered by Turkey and Brazil as an example. When Iran said it agreed to ship some of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for uranium enriched to higher levels, the US dismissed the agreement and pushed, successfully, for sanctions at the UN Security Council against Iran.
It would seem the renowned intellectual has changed his mind about quite a few things, because it was not all that long ago that Chomsky himself was a bit bearish on the Turkish human rights record:
Chomsky visited the southeastern part of Turkey, which he described as “a dungeon.” He cited examples of severe repression, including the arrest of the head of a local human rights commission for using the Kurdish spelling for the word referring to New Year’s celebrations. He said people are sentenced for playing Kurdish music or wearing the colors of the Kurdish flag. He told of his surprise when during a press conference in Turkey he was presented with a Kurdish-English dictionary, which is banned, with an inscription about the desire to speak in their mother tongue. “While this may not seem like an extreme demand, it is enough for torture and imprisonment, destroying people and villages,” Chomsky commented.
He also recalled that he was taken to see the remains of an Armenian church in Diyarbekir. He said there was not much left to it, that it was just ruins with no roof and pieces falling off. He was able to meet the caretaker of the church, an elderly man, and he learned that there was supposed to be a small Armenian community, but that no one talks much about it. “That’s what’s left of this major center—another monument to Turkey’s positive experiences in countering terror,” commented Chomsky.
Chomsky said that in 2002. The claim that things have improved so vastly since then that only racism could account for European reservations is not precisely where Occam's Razor might lead most of us, but I suppose optimists will at least take comfort in the immutable laws of nature--Chomsky is Chomsky and the sun will rise tomorrow.
He's off joining a protest against global warming here right now, apparently. Glad he's making himself useful.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Feel free to keep him as long as you like.
Jun '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Chomsky, the stupidest intellectual in the world.
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
As reported in Hurriyet--a paper the government is trying to shut down through punitive taxation:
Aug '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
He's off joining a protest against global warming here right now, apparently. Glad he's making himself useful. ·
I know what you mean.
Chomsky is a delightful linguist -- I'd be happy to hear him lecture on phonemes or semantic structure any day. And for his work in linguistics, he is rightly admired.
But why the man doesn't realize that the most useful thing he can do for the world is to stick to linguistics, I cannot fathom.
I've read a few -- very few -- of his papers on linguistics (nothing fancy, just introductory level stuff). Wonderful. Wish I'd had his bright ideas myself. And then I've heard him lecture (or harangue) on NPR. The best I can say for the latter is that it was, umm... earnest.
Jul '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
".... a question that was greeted by laughter from the audience."
They all know he is a idiot. Why do they invite him (rhetorical question)?
Jun '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Claire Berlinski, Ed.:
He's off joining a protest against global warming here right now, apparently. Glad he's making himself useful. ·
I know what you mean.
Chomsky is a delightful linguist -- I'd be happy to hear him lecture on phonemes or semantic structure any day. And for his work in linguistics, he is rightly admired.
But why the man doesn't realize that the most useful thing he can do for the world is to stick to linguistics, I cannot fathom.
I've read a few -- very few -- of his papers on linguistics (nothing fancy, just introductory level stuff). Wonderful. Wish I'd had his bright ideas myself. And then I've heard him lecture (or harangue) on NPR. The best I can say for the latter is that it was, umm... earnest. · Oct 12 at 6:59am
Depends on which linguist you talk to.
Aug '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Chomsky is a delightful linguist -- I'd be happy to hear him lecture on phonemes or semantic structure any day. And for his work in linguistics, he is rightly admired.
But why the man doesn't realize that the most useful thing he can do for the world is to stick to linguistics, I cannot fathom. · Oct 12 at 6:59am
I really am in no position to judge, but there are those who question his value even in linguistics. In reference to the perceived disjunction between his academic ability and political cluelessness, I found this quote:
Paul Postal and Robert Levine, linguists who have known and worked with Chomsky, take the view that the two aspects of his life’s work in fact manifest the same key properties: "a deep disregard of, and contempt for, the truth; a monumental disdain for standards of inquiry; a relentless strain of self-promotion; notable descents into incoherence; and a penchant for verbally abusing those who disagree with him."
Articles by Keith Windschuttle and John Williamson characterize Chomsky as an academic hack even in linguistics.
Yet he is one of the most cited authors in the humanities. O tempora...
Edited on Oct 12, 2010 at 7:50amJul '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Linguistics?
Eh, it's alright, I guess. With clam sauce...
May '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Chomsky appears to be flattering his audience's prejudices. Of the various things that may bother Turks, how does non-admittance to the EU rate? Is the view that this is due to racism widespread there?
May '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
"Linguist" is he? Hmm, probably leaves the more sophomoric among us contemplating a post that might violate the Code of Conduct.
Sep '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
I don't think the resistance to accepting Turkey into the EU has anything to do with racism. However, objections because of Turkey's bad human rights record probably aren't the underlying reason, either. I think lots of people in EU member states simply don't view Turkey as a part of Europe, a region with a shared (Western) culture.
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
It bothers them less than it did before. I think there's a growing sense now that Europe's in such bad shape that would be lucky to be admitted to Turkey. (The collapse of Greece was cause for much Schadenfreude around these parts.) The opinion that the EU's reservations about Turkey reflect the EU's racism no doubt was a big hit, although the suppressed premise--that Turkishness is a race--would be accepted if voiced clearly only by a marginal few. It's kind of an innovation in fashionable-leftist thought: racism without race. What the word "racism" really means, or what's really felt, anyway, is a bitter sense that Europe is sneering at Turkey for being backwards--that they're all hopeless Orientalists, at heart. Chomsky was playing to that. It's among the least helpful and least healthy ideas he could be encouraging here, of course.
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
I haven't noticed that anyone in the EU gives a damn about human rights in Turkey.
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Mark Woodworth
Articles by Keith Windschuttle and John Williamson characterize Chomsky as an academic hack even in linguistics.
It would be the very rare linguist who would dream of characterizing him as a hack. That he revolutionized linguistics is really not in debate--generative grammar is one of the richest and most interesting ideas of the 20th century. He's as important to linguistics as he is an utter loon about politics.
May '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
... Chomsky was playing to that. It's among the least helpful and least healthy ideas he could be encouraging here, of course. · Oct 12 at 10:47a
m
Well, in the flattering-your-hosts department, it would be amusing if Chomsky applied the same highly elaborate skepticism towards the Armenian genocide as he did towards the Khmer Rouge.
Jul '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
sierra
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
... Chomsky was playing to that. It's among the least helpful and least healthy ideas he could be encouraging here, of course. · Oct 12 at 10:47a
m
Well, in the flattering-your-hosts department, it would be amusing if Chomsky applied the same highly elaborate skepticism towards the Armenian genocide as he did towards the Khmer Rouge. · Oct 12 at 1:48pm
There was no "genocide", merely an insurrection by Armenians in conspiracy with Russia, which, of course, was quite rightly suppressed by the Turks.
Leading, unfortunately, to some, um, excesses, such as crucifying naked Armenian girls as young as 5 years old in public squares, where their moderate neighbors disported in a holiday atmosphere, as they stoned them.
Edited on Oct 12, 2010 at 3:16pmJul '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
What "race" are Turks, exactly? Lord, but these people are tedious.
As for the EU, one shouldn't attribute to racism that which can be explained by snobbery and protectionism.
May '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
Cas Balicki
Chomsky is a delightful linguist -- I'd be happy to hear him lecture on phonemes or semantic structure any day.
Depends on which linguist you talk to. · Oct 12 at 7:47am
Actually, his work on the sound structure of English undermines the concept of the phoneme and his work on syntax has pretty much ignored semantics.
---
Someone said that his politics is a lot like his linguistics. It is formed entirely in the library.
Aug '10
Re: Chomsky Goes Warm Turkey
outstripp
Chomsky is a delightful linguist -- I'd be happy to hear him lecture on phonemes or semantic structure any day.
Actually, his work on the sound structure of English undermines the concept of the phoneme and his work on syntax has pretty much ignored semantics.
Eh, yeah. I should have said syntactic structure, not semantic structure. This was an idiotic error on my part -- linguistics isn't my area of expertise and I've had a crazy day (it started with the dishwasher exploding). So, syntactics -- and to the extent I've studied and understood generative grammar, what's not to like?
Phonemes, now? I found the Chomsky & Halle system of distinctive features, which binarily decomposes phonemes into features either present or absent (so you can read each phoneme as an ordered tuple of ones and zeros if you like), just spiffarific when I first encountered it in college. Under this classification system, why we recognize phonemes as phonemes started making sense to me.
So yeah, when he sticks to linguistics, I'm a sap for the guy.
I'm an amateur, though. But my non-amateur professors admired him, too -- and not just for his kooky politics.