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1999 Socialist Scholars Conference
Noam Chomsky says, “Freedom without opportunity is a dubious gift. Discussion of positive and negative liberty is fine for academic seminars but it doesn’t have an enormous amount of significance for half of the world’s population who live – if that’s the word – on less than $2. a day which means without access to clean water, health services, adequate nutrition, even without research attention into their needs. There’s a well-known principle of health research known as the 10-90 equilibrium which refers to the fact that 10% of the annual money devoted to health research and development is devoted to problems that concern 10% of the world’s population and we know who they are. All of this amounts to intentional mass murder on a shocking scale since it would be so easy to remedy. particularly in the richest and most powerful country in world history. Another truism is that privilege confers freedom including the freedom to act in this case without difficulty and pain to mitigate atrocities which are colossal in scale, another truism.”
Moderator – Bogdan Denitch.
Additional speakers – Daniel Singer, Staughton Lynd.
Recorded at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Speakers
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky, by any measure, has led a most extraordinary life. In one index he is ranked as the eighth most cited person in history, right up there with Aristotle, Shakespeare, Marx, Plato and Freud. His contributions to modern linguistics are legendary. In addition to his pioneering work in that field, he has been a leading voice for peace and social justice for many decades. Chris Hedges says he is “America’s greatest intellectual” who “makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.” The New Statesman calls him “the conscience of the American people.” He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics and Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. At 95, he continues to inform and inspire people all over the world. He is the author of scores of books, his latest are Consequences of Capitalism, Chronicles of Dissent and Notes on Resistance.
Michael Eric Dyson
Michael Eric Dyson, a globally renowned scholar of race, religion and contemporary culture, is the Centennial Chair and University Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. A dynamic speaker, he lectures widely. Among his many books are April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King’s Death and How it Changed America, Tears We Cannot Stop, Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur, and Jay-Z: Made in America.
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