I just stumbled across this nugget in another fawning interview with Noam Chomsky:
In fact up until the first World War, when people turned anti-German, Germany had been described by American political scientists as the model of democracy.
Chomsky's characterization of American opinion rings entirely false to me. Is there any evidence at all that Americans admired the Kaiserreich's democracy, as opposed to other characteristics?
Posted by Ben Brumfield at July 20, 2006 08:59 AMThe claim is so vague as to be content-free.
More interesting in its disingenuous way is Chomsky's 'civilization' versus 'barbarism', the former being defined by NC as achievement in the arts, sciences, and literature - when surely the real clash that's being proposed is between liberal democratic society (which Germany c. 1914 was hardly an exemplary model of) and millenarian theocracy. It's an outstanding example of NC misrepresenting his critics, and, from what I gather, typical of his approach.
Posted by: Alan Allport at July 20, 2006 12:15 PM