Just saw Chomsky in Ames

Here is a recap of the Chomsky lecture on Tuesday night at ISU. I didn't take notes, so I left out some details, especially since it is late when I am writing this. Here it goes...

I just got back from seeing Noam Chomsky in Ames. The crowd was huge, standing room only, and Chomsky did not disapoint. Chomsky is so full of knowledge that he bombards you with facts and would bring you on the brink of being scared shi*tless. Then he would throw some dry humor in that would make you laugh, but if you really thought about it his joke wasn't funny, it was even more scary. One was about if we really thought we would have invaded Iraq if their #1 export was pickles and the one about the word that is too vulgar for any American to talk about, it is spelled O I L.

Chomsky outlined a Middle East made up of an alliance of nations that own a majority of the world's oil. Iran already hates us, Iraq (if they truly get a democracy) will be just like Iran, and the people of Saudi Arabia truly don't like us as much of their Kings do. This makes withdrawing all of our troops out of Iraq more difficult. If we just send a bunch of ships over there to pick them up, Iraq will be Iran the sequel. What the US Government wants is someone just like Sadaam to take over, but of course that person can't be too much like Sadaam.

Chomsky outlined how the Reagen Administration helped Sadaam gain power and start a WMD program and now Sadaam is in court on charges that were completely ignored and even encourage by Reagan and the first Bush (Chomsky called George HW Bush the liberal Bush). A quote that Chomsky repeated a few times was that it is easy to forget when you carry the club, but the victims don't forget.

Chomsky made it clear that there is a vast difference between the public opinion and the US Government's opinion. He quoted a poll that stated a majority of Bush voters thought Bush favored the Kyota Protocal and went on to say that so many people are in favor of Kyoto that they just assumed Bush was too. He said that every scientist in the world sees global warming as a problem except for the few that write for the Wall St. Journal and the one scientist that works in the White House.

Chomsky closed by saying that if peasants in Boliva can practice Democracy and change their country than we can here in the US. We sit here in the most privledged nation where we pride ourselves for our freedoms, yet we say we have no affect on what goes on. "Democracy takes more than shopping at Wal Mart and pushing a button every four years."