In the wake of William F. Buckley, Jr.'s death, Andrew Sullivan posted this video clip of part of a debate between Buckley and Noam Chomsky on American imperialism that is interesting on its own and is particularly fascinating purely in terms of both the civility and the intellectual heft that went into this discussion. Would that these sorts of debates were more common today:
Labels: Brian, foreign policy, history
It is genuinely sad when an intellectual giant passes...but I must say that when I've watched these Buckley v. Chomsky debates I can't help but dislike Buckley and like Chomsky...that isn't based on what they are saying but rather on how they are presenting their ideas. Chomsky seems genuinely interested in pursuing cogent logical truths and Buckley appears to try to play the bully who prefers to win than to uncover truth...a la augur.
Billy,
That's interesting. I haven't seen any of these clips except for the one I just posted, but I actually had the opposite reaction. It seemed like Chomsky was just running roughshod over Buckley before Buckley even had the chance to make his points.
In any event, the level of civility on both their parts stands in stark contrast to most anything around today, particularly on television. It's amazing to me how these guys were celebrities in their day solely because they were true men of ideas. How many people can we say that about today?
yea, you're right that chomsky can be kind of a jerk...but i feel like he's simply the better debater. i've never known where to stand with buckley...but i do agree that giant intellectuals seem to be of the past...or are they? I would say that blogs have created fora and agora for millions of "public intellectuals" to express their ideas and I think that rarity usually without justification translates into intellectual genius and the diffusion of knowledge today is so great that intellectualism is not rare at all. still, there is a major stratification, the folks like us who hotly pursue knowledge are far separated from the average who are less interested in these avenues (a life I find completely reasonable, even admirable). because the average is far more common than us self-proclaimed esoterics, the networks cater to the average...they may take our tv, but they may never take our blogs.
Brian-
These kind of debates do happen, the problem is that they aren't the ones that get press and they aren't what you'll find on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC or during a presidential debate. (Or on most blogs).
Few people have the inclination to participate in one, few would have the inclination to attend one.
We'd rather watch Ann Coulter and Ted Rall mud-wrestle.
...
I apologize profusely for that image.
Woo! Ann!
To clarify what I said above, that particular video of Buckley made him seem a little too arrogant...but in general I respect and admire him a great deal and wish that I could have known him and hope that I can someday be 1/10 of what he was.