Noam
Chomsky, the respected intellectual, linguist, philosopher and historian
discusses some of the biggest problems we face today with Professor Krauss, a
reputable physician in his own right. It seems that Noam Chomsky is something
of an icon, a symbol, a beacon, if you will, of hope among the intellectual
community. His entrance on stage causes an eruption of applause, perhaps even
standing ovations from members of the floor, an audience of professors, historians,
linguists, philosophers, lecturers and people of reasonable intellectual
capacities. He is dressed in faded blue jeans and a shirt under the sweater.
His hair a silvery white, it’s a clear depiction of his advanced age. Yet
despite his age, Noam Chomsky reveals, much to the lack of surprise to
everyone, that his mind is as brilliant as it has ever been. Throughout the
entire dialogue, Noam Chomsky skilfully dissects the issues at hand and gives
diagnosis, prognosis and even suggests cures to some of the biggest dilemmas
faced by modern man. It is not easy to grasp the severity of some of the world’s
problems, what more to provide an accurate analysis, in the short period of one’s
life. If it was, then many men and women would have been produced as
intellectuals. In this regard, Noam Chomsky stands as living proof that man
indeed can embody significant capacity for creative problem solving of the
highest order. His arguments were not done through persuasion; which he insists
is hallmark of good teachers, but instead is propelled by leading the listener
to consider a problem and then allowing that person to figure it out on their
own. His methodology, as he explains, is based on the school of thought that
believes in showing the listener a string and allowing the cultivation of
curiosity, inquiry and discovery by following where it leads to, so as to leave
a significant mark on the student’s intellectual development.
Much to the
delight of many, he advocates that intellectuals are responsible for
challenging notions, ideas and assumptions that bombard us constantly and which
might lead us to make conclusions by the force of others. He exerts that the
old school of “pouring” the learning into the vesicle is akin to persuasion or
rhetoric, which great teachers need not rely on to impart knowledge to the
listening student. He further explains that he finds it fascinating that people
would look to the validity of arguments through persuasive rhetoric alone,
without careful consideration for what exactly is being said. The conversation
is akin to a seamless tapestry of interesting anecdotes and frequently punctuates
itself with statements revealing Chomsky’s humility as an intellectual like “I
think that’s a substantiated statement”. As he began the dialogue, the
conversation naturally shifted to the field of linguistics, something Mr
Chomsky is all too familiar with. He begins by showing how language as a medium
of curiosity and discovery can be so integral to our everyday life. The
conversation leads the listener to ecstatic discovery of the external and
internal mechanisms of language. He shows us that between that between the
external space of sentence structure, morphology, punctuation and other
linguistic devices, lies the unseen yet even more important internal process of
comprehension that can give life to human communication. His brilliant arguments
are almost always substantiated with case studies from history, or experiments
conducted by other notables. One might argue that Noam Chomsky could probably
one of the greatest intellectuals of our time, considering just how much he is
being referenced to by the community of thinkers.
Professor Kraus and Professor
Chomsky’s discussion point then to the idea of just how complex human language
is just by studying the communication of bees and other creatures. At one time,
Professor Kraus asked Professor Chomsky for his explanation for his statement, “Persuasion
itself can be a form of violence”, which Professor Chomsky coolly answers that
so long as one is trying to convince another through persuasion then that
method is an ineffective path to learning. For, it is the individual who needs
to consider the hypotheses with proper reasoning and not the teacher who
spoon-feeds what is regarded as truths. In this way, the student learns to be a
mathematician instead of a collector of other people’s ideas. Professor Chomsky
is quick to reveal his work in foreign policy and how he vehemently spoke
against the American’s involvement in the Vietnam war. He highlights how America
got itself into a war by force, largely due to the persuasion of the Bush
administration and rhetoric. He further goes on to say that what is considered
as a ‘war crime’ is exclusively only used if the United States’s own crimes
would not be accentuated. Thus, something that the Nazi’s did which would be
considered as a ‘war crime’ would not be taken into account if the United
States had also committed such an act.
Professor Chomsky left the audience
startled at many of his efforts to unveil the consequences of American foreign
policies. One of them which he alluded to was the rampage of ISIS which we face
today. He argued that ISIS is the result of the foreign policies’ backlash over
the years and which arguably may leave Syria without any hope of recovering
from the destruction. Finally, close to the end of the conversation, Professor
Chomsky speaks about climate change. He expresses concern over what kind of
world our grandchildren might be living in if the current trends continue.
Overall, it was a remarkable sight to see these two intellectuals having open
and informed dialogue about ideas which were sometimes contrary to one another.
I hope for more reflections like these in the near future to see just what the
brightest minds are engaged in so that the same sort of higher order thinking
can be used to solve the problems facing the Ummah today. Insya Allah Ameen.
