My question:
Noam Chomsky responded:Isn’t it the “responsibility of intellectuals” to openly “call out” bad behavior and such wherever it is found regardless of whether it is “us” or “them” who are responsible? And as much as we perhaps need to hear of our own shortcomings is it wrong to say to someone else, “you’ve got it wrong” when, for example, they apparently believe that homosexuals should be stoned to death for being homosexuals or whatever?
Noam Chomsky makes many of us uncomfortable when he discusses in his political writings the more scandalous things that are done in the names of our own states. Because of this feeling of discomfort many of us tend to react very defensively toward those writings. But he is right to bring our attention to our own crimes which we (as well as himself he admits) share culpability in. Our world seems to grow more and more interconnected every day and we are all dependent upon each other for survival. I think Chomsky can probably be called a "cosmopolitan"-a citizen of the world-par excellence and a role model for anyone who wishes to also be a good citizen of the cosmos.It’s the responsibility of everyone, “intellectuals” included, to distribute finite energies so that they can do most good. That means primarily on actions for which we share responsibility and can influence. [My emphasis] The dissidents in enemy states whom we honor to go an extreme: Sakharov, Havel and others not only did not condemn horrendous US crimes (to my knowledge), but at times at least extolled US crimes. We can do much better than that, which is why I and others constantly condemn very harshly the crimes of official enemies. Constantly. Just yesterday, for example, I had an interview on Iranian TV in which I harshly condemned the policies of the government, the role of the clerics, etc. – anything comparable on US TV would be inconceivable.