Chomsky and Whitman

I was one of two-three thousand people to hear Noam Chomsky speak at Washington State University today. Those attendance numbers are encouraging. Adding up Pullman’s population to Moscow, Idaho’s (eight miles to the east), the two-three thousand were pulled out of a population base of about 50,000, on a Friday afternoon, on the warmest day of the year, the week before dead week…

Chomsky stayed on message, one he’s been delivering for decades. His one-hour talk focused on three crises for the United States (and thus the world) in this new century: the environment, the threat of nuclear weapons, and the democratic deficit. Later, as I sipped a cool stout on our sunny deck, pondering the latter, I wasn’t surprised to see Walt Whitman sitting across the table from me. Here’re notes on some of our thoughts:

democratic vistas to democratic deficits

the power in ourselves to the power of the few

“full play for human nature to expand itself in numberless and even conflicting directions” to “you’re either with us or against us”

creativity versus manipulation

bardic yawp to separation of voice/s

“an infinite number of currents and forces, and contributions, and temperatures, and cross purposes, whose ceaseless play of counterpart upon counterpart brings constant restoration and vitality” to constriction, monopoly, one way

nurture versus neuter

“For our New World I consider far less important for what it has done, or what it is, than for results to come” to wield as much force as we can now without considerations of its future effects

we write history to doctrinal institutions excising our story

Then it was time to get dinner together. Walt and I went to the market, looking for Allen Ginsberg in the produce section. We found him fondling eggplant. It was difficult to get back on topic after that.