Marauders on Rampage
by Lostalley
Marauders, you picked some heavy stuff. I'm unsure if this forum once dubbed as “Chinglish Corner” by you is the right venue. However, who am I to say it is or not? This may very well be a Hidden-Dragon-Crouching-Tiger place. Anyway, the scope of the subject is too big to deal with here. Just a few random thoughts to show my admiration for your intellectual pursuit. I'm ashamed to admit that my last trip to the bookstore ended up in a bar.
Foucault is a huge figure among the post-WWII French thinkers, but I think he is overrated. Much of his work strives to reinterpret the adopted history with deconstructive and non-progressive methods. He tries to thread history, science and ethic into one organism to suit his own theory only with too many holes and subsequently becomes a victim of his own success. Like Jared Diamond who thinks he has found the key to the fate of human societies with his bestseller “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” Foucault is very readable on any single subject but stretches too thin in a multi-disciplinary thesis. His “Madness and Civilization” is a sobering read for someone in search of explanations for mental illness (at one point I also questioned my own sanity). In your video, Foucault seems to debate more effectively than Chomsky by playing devil’s advocate (amoralist view).
A student of Applied Linguistics myself, I once followed Chomsky very closely. As he gradually diverted from academics to politics, I drifted away too. Now, I think his academic achievements are overshadowed by his activist ones. As a liberal Jew, his rise to stardom is mostly due to his unflinching criticism of US imperialism in particular and capitalism in general. He seems to fall into the conspiracy theory that much of world’s evil deeds are orchestrated by a ruling elite (I sometimes view the world through this lens too). Chomsky is more convincing in his world view in sync with his ideology than his take on localized issues. For instance, his analysis of Latin America, especially Nicaragua’s situation (Sandinista), is off the chart.
Foucault vs. Chomsky debate in 1971 offers no more than what they’ve already written. It’s a cultural boxing match between two intellectual heavy-weights more for entertainment than engagement. I say this because the Dutch host, Elders, kept poking Foucault under the table to put on a red wig he prepared during the debate for drama and Foucault was given hash (not cash) in advance as a partial payment and incitement perhaps. No wonder he looks contrived, contemptuous, and antagonistic.
I need a drink or two, and dump Chomsky for Bukowski, to loosen up. Marauders, keep roaming on the prairie of knowledge.
03/23/2015, Bethesda, Maryland
