Pearl diver Chomsky the undisputed maestro

That’s Chomsky, huh? (“Chomsky ponders human survival,” April 14). Whether he conforms to your vision of reality or not, one must stand in awe of the man — his astounding work ethic, his grasp of world events, his irreverence for the political establishments, his unflagging praise for the struggles of the people against illegitimate power, his lifelong search for meaning, truth, beauty and his humanity.

Noam Chomsky is a pearl diver. All his life he has been diving down into the vast seas of historical records related to the social structures that humans have erected to bring order into the complexities of human society — the laws and customs, the governmental apparatuses, the allegiances and alienation. Chomsky points to the possibility that, in the face of the threats primarily of climate change and nuclear brinksmanship, the human species is quite capable of creating environments that are not conducive to its very survival.

The people who have had an opportunity to get to know this man’s work start to see the outline of a great fund of raw data being synthesized and integrated into an aesthetically quite pleasing symphony, a perfectly integrated whole.

The life work of Noam Chomsky is art at its finest. It draws a person in by its respect for detail, its vast range and inclusiveness, its sanity, its appeal to human decency and utter uniqueness.

That he is able to gather such quantities of information with a stunning recall and unimpeachable supporting data is a high-wire act in itself. That he is then able to speak it in the language not of academia but of the street makes him the undisputed maestro.

He has written over 100 books, a continuous stream of articles, a continuous schedule of speaking engagements all over the world. And yet he is shut out of the mainstream media in the United States. Why? Like a hacker he gets right under the skin of the powers-that-be. e exposes their duplicity, their lies, their crimes against humanity.

He’s not even rude about it, just quite matter-of-fact, consistently striking the tone of a wise philosopher.

Ralph J. Dolan

Haydenville

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