Noam Chomsky at The Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay
Fri 11 Mar
words: MAB JONES
Chomsky is one of those names, like Lincoln, Einstein, or Gandhi, which garners instant recognition. You read the guy at university; years later, having forgotten what you learned, you buy yourself one of those ‘Guide to’ or ‘Explained’ books. Chomsky as thinker, Chomsky as economist – a world-renowned linguist who, by brilliance alone, seems too faraway for most of us to ever envisage as merely mortal, when so many immortal words and ideas have issued from the man.
The winner of the Erich Fromm Prize, the Orwell Award, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, the Kyoto Prize, and voted leading living public intellectual in a 2005 poll, Chomsy is, still, just a guy. At 81 years old, he is as wonderfully sharp and lucid as you would wish, with a friendly face and easy-going conversational style that is both engaging and unpretentious. He seems unflustered by the long list of accolades our questioner, Jane Davidson, reads with such juicy appreciation in perfect politician’s style. Chomsky doesn’t use long words, acronyms, indecipherable phraseology, or elusive economic terms. He explains things in a simple way, in a calm voice, with interest, intelligence, and logic. You feel inclined towards him – he might be on a stage, but he doesn’t take the thing, and he certainly doesn’t talk down to you, not once. It was more like having a chat than a well-documented discussion, albeit a very intelligent one.
The range of topics, led by audience questions, was great – we ran the gamut from climate change (and its deniers), religious belief, dictatorship and democracy, to language, communication, the control of information, and the accumulation of knowledge itself. Particularly, Chomsky’s views on that thing we call ‘democracy’ were enlightening: making reference to Aristotle’s ‘Politics’, he pointed out that in the US, President Madison had come to the same conclusion as Aristotle on the political model – that democracy was a dangerous thing as, if you gave every person the right to vote on policy, the poor and impoverished would undoubtedly use their vote to take land from the rich in order to re-distribute it. Madison’s solution (and the approach favoured by the US and Europe in modern times) was to make democracy less; whereas Aristotle’s solution was to decrease inequality.
Chomsky spoke eloquently on the ways in which Western governments sustain themselves, through the encouragement of dictatorships in those countries which might pose a threat, either directly or through the control of oil; and in the suppression and distraction of its own citizens, with the protection of information that might endanger the state, should you or I find out about it. Security of state equals security against us, Chomsky argued, and people like Julian Assange should receive more of our support. The changes in UK law after 07/07 have the potential to infringe upon our freedoms – right now, for example, a bookshop is being tried for simply allowing Jihadist material onto its bookshelves. Freedom of speech, yes, but freedom of information? Perhaps not.
When asked what advice he would give to a young democracy such as ourselves, Chomsky replied that we should “make it a real democracy”. The greater the power, the greater the potential for its misuse. Something to bear in mind. However, I was pleased when Jane Davidson took the time to thank the person responsible for the great man’s visit to our country – a young man sitting to my right. Not a politician, or an ambassador; not one of the powerful-looking men, but a hopeful, idealistic student. That such a modern icon should accept the invitation of an earnest ‘nobody’, speaks volumes. A truly inspiring man, and an event I – and Wales – won’t ever forget.