In a wide-ranging interview at his MIT office, liberal icon Noam Chomsky expressed no enthusiasm for Barack Obama or the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, dismissing Obama as “an opportunist” and characterizing Clinton as much the same, “only more militant.”
Born to immigrant Jewish parents in Philadelphia in 1928, Chomsky explained his political views were formed growing up during the Great Depression, and he rejected any attempt to tie his academic work in linguistics to his decades of anti-war protest and leftist criticism of the United States.
The “father of modern linguistics,” as he often is described, told WND he had “no interest whatever” in the fact that Osama bin Laden at the time of his death had two Chomsky books at his compound, “Necessary Illusions: Though Control in Democratic Societies” and “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance.”
“Why do I care what books Osama bin Laden was reading?” asked Chomsky, author of more than 100 books.
He noted that the recent disclosure of documents seized at the compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was killed showed the al-Qaida leader had a variety of reading material, including publications written by the CIA.
Chomsky, who was voted the “world’s top intellectual” in a 2005 poll, said he was not disappointed in Obama, because he “didn’t expect anything.”
“So, I’m not one of those who was disillusioned,” he said.