Telling Unflattering Truth, With Facts, And Making America Great, Finally

IF YOU HAVE A DOCTORATE in linguistics and philosophy, and you spend sixty two years and counting as a professor at M.I.T., and you revolutionize the science of linguistics like Einstein did physics, and you engage in political activism and do research and writing in American history, politics, and current events, and you accuse the United States of murdering and torturing millions of innocent people, and accuse every American president since World War Two of being a war criminal, you had better be able to support your claims, as well as your work, with a considerable amount of verifiable facts, or you will promptly lose your job at M.I.T.., which is currently rated the best university in the United States, with good reason. Institutions like M.I.T. do not like having their reputations besmirched by bad scholarship, or unfounded claims made by radical academicians. Such institutions do not tolerate academic incompetence, dishonesty, nor unsubstantiated accusations by its lecturers. That is why Noam Chomsky, who has been at M.I.T. doing all the above since I was born sixty two yeas ago, is still there, stronger than ever, regarded as the supreme American intellectual everywhere in the world except America, where he is largely ignored by mainstream society, due to his unsettling radicalism. conservative mainstream American do not like being questioned, much less exposed. The only problem with Chomsky is deciding which of his dozens of extraordinary books to read first. It really doesn't matter, as long as you read them all. Permit me to suggest "Manufacturing Consent", "Failed States", "hegemony of survival", or his latest, published in 2016, "Who Rules The World?", a true barn burning eye opener coup de grace. From there, you're on your own. Another problem with Chomsky is that he tells the truth, and backs it up with facts, and the truth he tells about the U.S.A. is far from flattering. We Americans much prefer being flattered. In this world, including the U.S. past and present, the truth is, regrettably, often neither appealing nor flattering. Chomsky redefines patriotism. He replaces blind, pandering loyalty and showy ostentatious display with a sincere attempt to improve one's country through sustained, thoughtful, cogent, courageous analysis, coupled with a willingness to accept what such analysis reveals, including unpleasant national reality, past and present. This improved brand of patriotism leads hopefully to the bringing to fruition our espoused lofty values and virtues, and the desired result of fulfilling finally our true potential for greatness, by making America great, not again, but for the first time ever, such as she has never yet been before.