Tornado Alley (PROG)

[newmedman]

wowsers, a ton to unpack there but this one stood out first.

The writing is a catalogue of crimes committed by America, terrible crimes, and many of them, but it is not they that produce the sensation of blows: it is Chomsky’s rage as he describes them. His sentences slice and gash, envenomed by a vicious sarcasm. His rhythm is repetitive and monotonous, like the hacking of a machine. The writing is as ferocious as the actions it describes, but coldly so. It is not Chomsky’s style to make death live, to prick his readers with lurid images. He uses certain words over and over, atrocity, murder, genocide, massacre, murder, massacre, genocide, atrocity, atrocity, massacre, murder, genocide, until, through repetition, the words lose their meaning and become technical. The sentences are accusations of guilt, but not from a position of innocence or hope for something better:

I read a couple of his books back in the day and to me they were very very dark with no hope of anything better. LOL at least in Tolkien's Middle Earth the good guys win.

I should not criticize a scholar because I am not one but to me there's a lot of room for improvement in his thinking and his penchant for cutting off any students who dissented was even more telling. If I have a young guy or girl ask me, "can't we do it this way" I will give them a stage. LOL I don't remember anytime that it worked but II'm always looking for new ideas. Of course we are just prepping doors for locks and not talking philosophy but I think the same ideas apply.

Thanks for that piece, I never read that one before. It helps.