Chomski's views regarding the emergent historical reasons for that violence was the point.
He was more accutely foccussed on detecting a language of couched propaganda that always continues in the narratives of entrenched emperial power, which examples of in Vietnam era were relied upon. There is much to be learned from our cold war hysteria leading to that bombastic escalating involvment there, how do we really effectively "win" wars and not bleed ourselves in the process. Chomsky was perhaps analyzing things more from a past oppression & extreme violence from imperialist gov'ts, does beget the same at later dates when those people choose to assume their own identity but remember past wrongs done against them. (think about it, its not too deep Christian)
Having the freedom for dissenting opposing views & fundamental analysis is what makes this country absolutely great, in no way was Chomsky condoning the evil nature of the violent Khmer Rouge here is one quote, see if you catch where hes going with it ,bummy. Because there's savagery in the world, we must not become savages ourselves, isn't that the Christian way? Methinks you are draped in a fantasy world, pretending to be what you are not, detached from that of your "Savior".
If a serious study of the impact of Western imperialism on Cambodian peasant life is someday undertaken, it may well be discovered that the violence lurking behind the Khmer smile, on which Meyer and others have commented, is not a reflection of obscure traits in peasant culture and psychology, but is the direct and understandable response to the violence of the imperial system, and that its current manifestations are a no less direct and understandable response to the still more concentrated and extreme savagery of a U.S. assault that may in part have been designed to evoke this very response, as we have noted. Such a study may also show that the Khmer Rouge programs elicited a positive response from some sectors of the Cambodian peasantry because they dealt with fundamental problems rooted in the feudal past and exacerbated by the imperial system with its final outburst of uncontrolled barbarism.
meme |
