Politics and Language | Noam Chomsky | Talks at Google

Pinker seems to be on the other end of the academic spectrum from the SWH. For those who don't know linguistics, Chomsky was the driving force in modern linguistics. Last week I stumbled across this video, the first 15 minutes or so of such are a pretty good, easy to grasp intro to his ideas on universal grammar and the language faculty: ▶ this video

> Maybe we should be, though? [..] Great. I'm not sure that should top your list of injustices, though. It doesn't top mine, because it's not one thats happening in my back yard. So do you think we should care, or shouldn't we? If your point ultimately is no, we should not care, then why not be honest and say "but we shouldn't care, and here's why". And how can you claim "nobody" cares? Are you sure there aren't people in many countries who wish companies wouldn't just deal with their butcherers, but give the oppressed a voice? If you don't care, just say it. It's not about where it happens, it's about whether my "friends" are involved in it. If Google didn't use this site as a PR platform, too, there'd be no point in talking about it. But since many people here use their products, because they claim a "Hi fellow Kids" kind of humanness, it is relevant. When some total stranger acts horrible to others, but they can handle it themselves, I probably wouldn't bother getting involved. But if that guy was chatting to me 5 minutes prior to that, and considers himself someone on good terms with me, I would absolutely at least say something. It doesn't matter what's on "top" of the "list of priorites", it only matters that it matters, and that I have a position on it I must make known or be complicit by silence. It's really simple, we understand that intuitively in all sorts of situations, it doesn't get more complicated because the behaviour to have a position on gets worse. Totalit

Noam Chomsky @ Harvard - Propaganda and Control of The Public Mind link And here is his recent talk at Google... Google Talk: ▶ this video