When I was a kid the internet wasn't available so I would always try and seek out weird ideas on my own. I discovered Chomsky's views reading a Rolling Stone is

When I was a kid the internet wasn't available so I would always try and seek out weird ideas on my own. I discovered Chomsky's views reading a Rolling Stone issue that featured an interview with him. I think his pointing out of government and corporate cultural assumptions are fine and generally true but his underline philosophy of 'libertarian socialism' I think is just divorced from the real world. I used to have one of his interviews with David Barsamian on a cassette tape ( I'm not sure of the date ), but I remember Chomsky saying in response to a question about his societal vision that he believed "skills shouldn't confer power". In short if you have a special talent or skill it shouldn't give you any social leverage. I don't disagree with that but I will tell you one thing. The world will never, and I mean never ever "work" like that short of the personable interactions between close friends and family. To that regard I simply don't see any utility in Chomsky's social philosophy other than it being a foundation to see the corruption of those he critiques a bit more clearly. So that's my only disagreement with him. I do think muckrakers do the world a service and he has played his role well in unveiling the ideological assumptions of a figure-head and pundit driven media world. Beyond that, to me he's just another privileged academic who has had the pleasure of traveling the world and saying a bunch of smart things.