Two great men...
Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn are two of my heroes; both intellectually/politically and in terms of the sacrifices they've made to make this country better. I've read almost everything they've each written and some of their works have formed the basis of my own political philosophy.
Howard Zinn's Declarations of Independence is a book I read after reading his A People's History of the US. It was Zinn's own political philosophy and very compelling for me in it's views on justice, politics and peace. Zinn' writing style is almost conversational and always humorous and passionate. He's fun to listen to even when he talks about very dark subjects. I actually read a passage from Howard Zinn from his You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train. :)
Noam Chomksy's strengths are analysis and comparison. By contrast his speaking and writing style is very dry. He wrote Manufacturing Consent with Edward Hermann about bias and lies in the US press. (he wrote Necessary Illusions on his own based on the same research) The breadth of his knowledge is just astonishing and I marvel the way he can talk at length and in detail about just about any subject from mathematics, linguistics (of course he's a linguistics professor at MIT) politics and US foreign policy which I enjoy reading most. At this point Chomsky's voice is in my head and when I read the news it's his voice that helps me sort it out. I know ahead of time what he'll say to an extent, but his information is always far superior.
Zinn is in his 80's and Chomsky his 70's. There is no one alive who can replace their role in American political discourse, so I'm just enjoying them wile they're still around. Every American should read A People's History of the US and Manufacturing Consent. The work is that important. So with great joy I read a recent interview by Amy Goodman of both these men who live in Boston. They talk about patriotism, Iraq and compare that with Vietnam. Very interesting discussion with these brilliant men.
Also found this video of the same interview, but discussing Alan Dershowitz' defamation of a middle east scholar's work on Israeli human rights abuses. Chomsy is a Jewish Zionist, but sees Israel correctly as an aggressor in the region, human rights abuser and obstructionist to peace.
Howard Zinn's Declarations of Independence is a book I read after reading his A People's History of the US. It was Zinn's own political philosophy and very compelling for me in it's views on justice, politics and peace. Zinn' writing style is almost conversational and always humorous and passionate. He's fun to listen to even when he talks about very dark subjects. I actually read a passage from Howard Zinn from his You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train. :)
Noam Chomksy's strengths are analysis and comparison. By contrast his speaking and writing style is very dry. He wrote Manufacturing Consent with Edward Hermann about bias and lies in the US press. (he wrote Necessary Illusions on his own based on the same research) The breadth of his knowledge is just astonishing and I marvel the way he can talk at length and in detail about just about any subject from mathematics, linguistics (of course he's a linguistics professor at MIT) politics and US foreign policy which I enjoy reading most. At this point Chomsky's voice is in my head and when I read the news it's his voice that helps me sort it out. I know ahead of time what he'll say to an extent, but his information is always far superior.
Zinn is in his 80's and Chomsky his 70's. There is no one alive who can replace their role in American political discourse, so I'm just enjoying them wile they're still around. Every American should read A People's History of the US and Manufacturing Consent. The work is that important. So with great joy I read a recent interview by Amy Goodman of both these men who live in Boston. They talk about patriotism, Iraq and compare that with Vietnam. Very interesting discussion with these brilliant men.
Also found this video of the same interview, but discussing Alan Dershowitz' defamation of a middle east scholar's work on Israeli human rights abuses. Chomsy is a Jewish Zionist, but sees Israel correctly as an aggressor in the region, human rights abuser and obstructionist to peace.