Global Report interviews Anthony Arnove on The Essential Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is known around the world for his revolutionary work in linguistics and his critical analysis of US foreign policy. Author and activist Anthony Arnove has assembled twenty"five of Chomsky's essays for The Essential Chomsky (The New Press, 2008), a rich volume suitable for those first encountering Chomsky's thought or those continuing to learn from him. Mr. Arnove took time to answer some questions about Chomsky's work. GR: Chomsky is known for being extraordinarily prolific. How did you reduce such a large body of work to its "essentials"? AA: Noam has written so much compelling work it would be absurd to claim that I have succeeded in collecting the most essential material in only one book. What I have done, I hope, is bring together a representative range of writing that will entice readers to dig deeper. I wanted to include work by Noam in linguistics and philosophy that I thought could be understood by readers who were not specialists. And I also looked for political essays that I thought spoke not just to the moment they were written but to the world today. I also wanted to represent the diversity of his work, to give people a sense of its range and interconnections. GR: It's pretty obvious why his ideas anger the right, but I sometime feel there is more animosity towards Chomsky in articles written by liberals and mainstream "leftists" like Christopher Hitchens. For example, in 2005, the American Prospect ran a cover with snarling caricatures of Chomsky and Dick Cheney for the story "Between Chomsky and Cheney: American power in the service of liberal ideals." Why is Chomsky so threatening to these folks? AA: Hitchens is a unique case. He wrote an article in The Nation defending Noam before his recent hard turn to the right, which makes for an interesting read. But the fact is that Noam has long been seen as a threat to establishment liberal views. Liberalism overwhelmingly accepts a series of ideas about the exercise of U.S. military power and about the role of elites in setting policy that Noam's work has consistently challenged. During the U.S. assault on Vietnam, for example, Noam pointed out that many liberals accepted the aims of the U.S. war effort but came to feel that the war was undermining U.S. interests -- and opposed it for that reason, not because of a principled opposition to the war. Much of the opposition to the current occupation of Iraq has a similar character. Liberals effectively opposed the fact that the tactics of the Bush administration were, from the standpoint of U.S. imperial aims, counterproductive. They oppose losing the war, not the war itself. GR: Chomsky identifies with the libertarian-socialist tradition of Bakunin and other anarchists and in "Notes on Anarchism" (one of the articles you selected for The Essential Chomsky) and elsewhere, he is highly critical of the Bolsheviks. I understand that you belong to an organization philosophically rooted in the theories of Lenin and Trotsky. Did this ideological difference complicate the creation of this volume? AA: There is a great deal of commonality between the roots of the radical anarcho-syndicalist tradition that Noam has developed and continued and the tradition of socialism from below that I personally find the greatest inspiration. But there are of course differences, as well -- just ones not particularly relevant to the task of presenting Noam's own political views on anarchism and libertarian socialism, which are important and compelling. GR: You include writings on both politics and language. Do you see a connection between Chomsky's work in linguistics and his activism? AA: Noam has always stressed that his scientific work on language and his writing on politics are distinct fields on inquiry, with different methods of evidence and argumentation, and that neither can be reduced to the other. But as a reader of his work, I do find it intriguing to see how Noam brings some of the rigors of scientific philosophy to his political writings. I also see some interesting connections between his understanding of human nature, related to his understanding of the unique human faculty of language, which is inherently creative, and his work to bring about a society that would maximize human freedom and creativity. They are suggestive, loose connections, though. Nothing more than that. GR: Might there be a second volume in the works? AA: Noam has many more volumes in the works, but I don't think there will be a second volume of Essential Chomsky. I really hope it's enough of a jumping off point that it will bring more readers toward exploring Noam's rich body of work on their own. I know my own engagement with Noam started with James Peck's terrific Chomsky Reader. I'd be thrilled if Essential Chomsky could have some small portion of the impact that book has had. Writings by Anthony Arnove may be found at http://www.zmag.org/zspace/anthonyarnove Nick Holt works as a legal advocate for poor and low-income people in Charlotte, NC. His website is gritsandroses.org