Pacifica Radio Archives’ Campus Campaign: Celebrating Chomsky’s 80th Birthday
Noam Chomsky is a professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known in the academic and scientific community as the father of modern linguistics. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as an anarchist-leaning political dissident, and libertarian socialist intellectual.
Beginning with his opposition to the Vietnam War Chomsky established himself as a prominent critic of US foreign and domestic policy. He expressed his opposition to the Vietnam war in his February 1967 essay, “The Responsibility of Intellectuals” which was published in The New York Review of Books. In 1968 he spoke at a Town hall meeting against the draft in New York City in a speech that was broadcast on Pacifica stations and is now preserved in the Archives. In 1969 he published a collection of essays called American Power and the New Mandarins, which put him on the political map.
His far-reaching criticisms of US foreign policy and his questioning of the legitimacy of US power have resulted in him being almost completely shunned by the American mainstream media in the United States – yet Chomsky is frequently sought out for his views by mainstream publications and news outlets worldwide.
Noam Chomsky turns 80 on December 7th 2008, and just weeks from his birthday today we present you with a chance to help disseminate his words into American high schools and college campuses through the Pacifica Archives’ Campus Campaign.
Call 1800-735-0230 to make a pledge, or visit www.supportPRA.org.