Chomsky and Globalisation

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Naom Chomsky, the 'Einstein of modern linguistics', is equally well-known as an uncompromising political dissident and social critic. His position is an unusual one, viewing the spread of a single global culture-achieved through the global flow of information products and images - as resulting in form of cultural, imperialism from which only the Western World can truly benefit.
About the Author
Jeremy Fox used to be a language teacher at UEA in Norwich. He now writes about current affairs and the ways in which global capitalism uses the media to keep us well behaved.
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Introduction
Noam Chomsky is well placed to represent a left-wing view of globalisation and the new world order. He is well known, a prolific writer of books, articles and letters, and makes many speeches, so information about his views is easy to find. In his research work, he is known as the ‘Einstein of modern linguistics’, and almost universally admired by his colleagues for his contribution to their work. But as a commentator on political and social affairs, he arouses mixed feelings. Many socialists admire him warmly and would agree with much of what he says and writes. But some middle-of-the-road Americans find it hard to accept the unremitting severity of his attacks on American government policy, especially foreign policy. The irritation felt by some is expressed in this quotation from the prestigious ‘New York Times’:
‘Arguably the most important intellectual alive, how can he write such nonsense about international affairs and foreign policy?’
Another, similar viewpoint is expressed by a reader of the ‘Los Angeles Times’ who wrote in 1988 that:
‘Noam Chomsky is a voice in the wilderness, but nobody listens.’ ...
From our point of view, however, the qualities that are most useful in a commentator on globalisation are more likely to include readability, expertise and common sense than unquestioning acceptance of US government policy.
For over 30 years, Chomsky has been denouncing US foreign policy, complaining noisily about the way the USA has treated so many Third World countries. To take a typical example, he lectured at the American University in Cairo in 1993 about the Cold War period, during which US operations included ‘the overthrow of the conservative parliamentary regime in Iran in 1953, restoring the Shah and his brutal rule; the destruction of Guatemala’s ten year democratic interlude’, which placed in power ‘a collection of mass murderers who would have won nods of approval from Himmler and Goering’, with atrocities reaching their highest level in the 1980s, ‘always with the backing or participation of the United States and its client states’; and ‘the establishment of a Latin-American style terror state in South Vietnam’.
Chomsky is not alone in such attacks on US foreign policy. For example, Garry Wills noted the American tendency to dethrone elected leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and substitute others that they have felt to be more suitable:
‘Over time, American leadership substituted for that of Muhammad Mossadeq in Iran, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, Rafael Trujillo in The Dominican Republic, Salvador Allende in Chile, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Maurice Bishop in Grenada, and Manuel Noriega in Panama.’
The idea of the US as a ‘bully’ was reflected in the leading article in a British newspaper in March 1999. Referring to a trade dispute with the European Community about Caribbean bananas, the Independent newspaper recommended resisting the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the US on cashmere pullovers and possibly Concorde landing rights, commenting:
‘The behaviour of the United States is bullying, unconvincing, and illegal, and quite extraordinary for a nation which espouses the values of free trade and the rule of law.’
In actual fact, as Chomsky

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Languages: English