Life Is Empty Without It

The first time I heard of Noam Chomsky was over forty-five years ago, during the Viet-Nam war, when he wrote articles in the New York Review of Books and other places that were courageous, informed and undeceived. His writings helped me to break through the insanity of those times.

But some of his writings in the subsequent years were difficult for me. I just didn't have the depth of understanding of linguistics to evaluate his contributions to that field nor the background reading in history to evaluate his socio-cultural critiques. He says things such as that the 1990's were probably the lowest point in the intellectual history of the world. I now think he is probably right in saying that, and in the other things he says, but it certainly took a lot of background preparation to get excited about such statements and have them ring true to me.

Here is just one video of many of Chomsky speaking that are available on YouTube. It rings true to me in every detail, and the detail about the people who have impressed him the most goes right to my soul.