Re: Prose Style, was Time to Get Religion
On Dec 7, 2006, at 12:17 PM, ravi wrote:
What I do find troublesome is the criticism of say Chomsky on the grounds that his analysis is superficial, inadequate, incomplete, useless, etc in comparison to an alternative. In such a case,
especially in human matters (e.g: politics), I think it is not disingenuous
for me to claim a non-partisan role and look for knowledge and reasoning
that I can use to understand the issues and act. It is (I claim) a matter of coincidence that Chomsky chooses the language of the non-expert non-partisan: common sense.
But almost everything Chomsky writes runs against the “common sense”
of Americans. The USG is violently imperialist on behalf of capital -
the common sense is that the government means well, sometimes fucks
up, and is often misunderstood or irrationally hated. The NY Times is
a tool of power - the common sense is that it’s subversive and “far
left.” Etc. And you can’t fight that ingrained common sense through
repeated factchecking. It’s great for the base, but beyond that, you
might as well be speaking Frisian.
Doug