Madam, - Do we live in the best of times, or the worst of times? In a striking conjuncture, Noam Chomsky comes to visit Ireland just a week after The Irish Times carries its first column by Charles Krauthammer. What greater contrast could there be between analysts of American global policies and models of intellectual practice?
Shane Hegarty's profile of Chomsky (Weekend, January 14th) is a masterpiece of Google-glib condescension. Mr Hegarty manages to insult not only Chomsky, but also his potential audience ("going more to worship than to challenge"). He cites none of Chomsky's books, he makes dubious rhetorical slips - Chomsky has never been "associated" with Robert Faurisson, except by his enemies - and the only figure he can oppose to Chomsky is the egregious Christopher Hitchens. Mr Hegarty suggests that Chomsky is not good at "providing answers" to the problems he raises but, as an anarchist, Chomsky would rightly say that it is not his role to provide answers. We are told that Chomsky's least appealing characteristic is that he is unlikely to say "I was wrong".
In sharp contrast, Charles Krauthammer's advent as an Irish Times columnist is marked by his recognition as a Pulitzer Prize-winning purveyor of "distinguished comment" and "a renowned conservative". Yet this is the same Charles Krauthammer who has been one of the Bush administration's loudest cheerleaders, who argues that the United States should seek "universal dominion" in the world, and who has gone on record as an advocate of the use of torture.
But unlike Chomsky, Krauthammer is not answerable to an academic community, and does not habitually make himself available for debate with a wider public (unless one counts stints on Fox News). He has not shown Chomsky's willingness to address the most modest and obscure newspaper, community group, or college. Krauthammer is a pundit from inside the Washington beltway, dubiously close to government, providing arguments in the service of power.
It is a sad and alarming sign of the times - the best of times, the worst of times? - that the purportedly liberal Irish newspaper of record feels the need to give space to the Sophoclean chorus that is Charles Krauthammer, while dumping ignorant scorn on a true Cassandra in the person of Noam Chomsky. - Yours, etc,
CONOR McCARTHY, De Vesci Court, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.