Righteous, Remorseful Jews
As my 61st birthday approaches, I’ve noticed that I have recently been going back to authors and works I read many years ago. For example, I’ve been reading Thomas Merton’s Asian Journal, William D. Miller’s…
Tag: David Barsamian
“Speaking Truth to Power Makes No Sense”
Noam Chomsky, The Common Good [1998] Brandon, I first read this collection of interviews between Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian twenty years ago. The interviews were from the second half of the nineties, the Clinton…
A Witness to Power’s Mendacity
A while back I reread David Barsamian’s first collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, entitled Chronicles of Dissent. Actually, I first heard the material starting in the mid-1980s, listening to Barsamian’s cassette tapes of interviews…
The Way It Looked in 1988
Take a look at this morning’s New York Times (I had fifty cents to kill, so I bought a copy). There’s story about Israel, John Kifner, a pretty good reporter, is reporting about attitudes in…
The United States versus the Gospels
The crime of liberation theology was that it takes the Gospels seriously. That’s unacceptable. The Gospels are radical pacifist material, if you take a look at them. When the Roman emperor Constantine adopted Christianity, he…
Dear Isabel (Letter/9)
Monday 29 June 2015 Dear Isabel Glad you had friends visiting over the weekend and that you now have a little more space for your daily practices and chill time/spaces. Page 11, paragraph 1 Don…
Because We Say So
Dear Kelley, I’m delighted that you inquired about where to start with reading Noam Chomsky. I look forward to discussing Hegemony or Survival with you in a couple of weeks. Back in 1986—those horrid years…
The On-going Task: Challenging Illegitimate Authority
At Northwest Coffee, I was having a conversation with Theresa Schafer about women’s ordination and clericalism, and I paraphrased what Noam Chomsky once said about any hierarchy or authority needing to justify itself. Later, I found…
Could the Rich Just Be a Little Nicer?
I recently came across this excerpt from an interview, which first appeared in 1999. I am reminded of the 17 people who showed up on Sunday at Sophia House to hear Sara and Emily speak…
Take Your Pick/2
Pascal raised the question: How do you know whether God exists? He said, if I assume that he exists and he does, I’ll make out OK. If he doesn’t, I won’t lose anything. If he…