@Татьяна Борисова Neither does Chomsky; but he is good at making millions through the book-publishing arm of the US capitalist machine by writing books condemning the US capitalist machine. He's also good at keeping those millions in tax-protected investment portfolios.
@Mark Riley You're joking right? Chomsky's first political book was to be published by Time-Life until the owner got wind of it and literally shut down his own publishing company to censor Chomsky's book! After that Chomsky's book was reissued by a small nonprofit press with no distribution. I contacted Chomky in 2001 to see if his book "At War with Asia" was in print as my copy had gotten "disappeared." Chomsky said it was very hard for him to get books reissued since so few people read his books and if they do they read the more superficial interview books. Fortunately AK Press in Canada did Reissue "At War with Asia" I think the following year (maybe my email helped).
From: Noam Chomsky
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 15:56:25 -0500
To: Drew W Hempel <hemp0027@...> (by way of Noam Chomsky
Subject: Re: Minnesota
Dear Drew Hempel,
God save us from our friends -- not for the first time. I'm a little
surprised that Brokaw would credit a source like that. Surely he wouldn't
in the case of anyone who falls within approved doctrinal bounds.
You're quite right about activists not being willing to read. I get a good measure of it when publishers send sales records or in the signing frenzies after I give talks. In both cases it's overwhelmingly the small pamphlets with interviews, etc.; easy reads, and short. But it's not just activists.
Same with academic scholars. It's very rare for them to go beyond the
limits of the guild, a practice far more pronounced in the social sciences,
history, etc., than in the sciences, something I've observed from a lot of
first-hand experience in the last 1/2-century. It's too bad about
Guerin-Rocker, and in fact all of the rich literature on anarchism.
Contemporary anarchists -- at least those who use the name -- seem to
divide, mostly, between people who don't want to read and those who are
immersed in often arcane scholarship. There are exceptions, of course, but
the tendencies are noticeable. It was quite different in the days when
workers education was a normal part of everyday life for great numbers of
people, and labor-based media were common fare.
No plans for reissue of At War with Asia or For Reasons of State, much to
my regret. In fact, they were scarcely looked at in the first place.
Wrong story. Even left academics don't want to hear such things, and it
went -- and goes -- beyond the interests of most activists. How far the
anti-war movement was from understanding anything that was going on was
revealed pretty dramatically by the reception of McNamara's awful memoirs
-- actually welcomed by leading figures as a vindication of their stand.
Few could comprehend what an incredible display of apologetics it was.
Wrote a few things about it, which I noticed could not be understood even
by left academics, for the most part. The Party Line is much more
influential than many think.
Thanks for sending along the excerpt from what you've been writing.
Interesting, and well done I think -- but then, I would. I've read some of
what Zerzan has written, under various names. Occasionally, out of
curiosity, I've written brief letters asking if he could supply some of the
sources for particular quotes, which I know he has invented (though I
didn't say so). I'm constantly promised that they'll be coming. They
won't, of course. This is just a silly game, in my opinion, defaming the
good name of anarchism -- not for the first time; there's a rich history of
that.
Noam
So the claim is that because Chomsky has $2 million in a trust fund for his children and grandchildren that makes him rich. It's definitely more money than most but he's giving it away to his relatives - so it's not like he's spending it on himself for luxury items. And who knows what kind of future his "investments" will hold?
The claim that Noam "CHOSE" his TIFF is hard to believe - I even get a TIFF payment because I worked as a Dishwasher! I think the Fund is up to a few days of work now as a dishwasher. haha.
Meanwhile activists are trying to reform the TIFF investments - so it's not like people are not critical of what they invest in.
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