Chomsky is voted world's top public intellectual

The Guardian ^ | Tuesday October 18, 2005 | Duncan Campbell

[F14 Pilot]

He is in his 70s and first became known for his theory of transformational grammar - and now he is top of the thinkers' hit parade. Noam Chomsky, the linguistics professor who has become one of the most outspoken critics of US foreign policy, has won a poll that names him as the world's top public intellectual.

Chomsky, who was underwhelmed by the honour, beat off challenges from Umberto Eco, Richard Dawkins, Vaclav Havel and Christopher Hitchens to win the Prospect/Foreign Policy poll.

More than 20,000 voters from around the world took part in selecting the winners from a list of 100. The most striking aspect of the list is the shortage of the young, the female and the French. Only two of the top 10, Hitchens and Salman Rushdie, were born after the war, and Naomi Klein is the highest placed woman, at 11. France provides one name in the top 40, fewer than Peru and Iran. Since the poll was for the world's leading intellectuals, it should come as no surprise that websites manned by supporters of Chomsky, Hitchens and Abdolkarim Soroush were used to draw attention to the poll. Chomsky's supporters are clearly the most energetic: he took 4,800 votes to Eco's 2,500. Voters came mainly from Britain and the US. "I don't pay a lot of attention to them," said Chomsky of the poll last night. "It was probably padded by some friends of mine."

Pondering the absence of younger intellectuals from the list, David Herman asks in the new issue of Prospect: "Who are the younger equivalents to [Jürgen] Habermas, Chomsky and Havel? Great names are formed by great events. But there has been no shortage of terrible events in the last 10 years." Only two of the top 20 have yet to reach the age of 50.

The choice of Chomsky will be welcomed and contested by many of the same names who responded delightedly or furiously to the award of the Nobel prize for literature to Harold Pinter last week.

In recognition of this, Prospect offers alternative perspectives, with Robin Blackburn arguing for Chomsky's right to head the list as both a brilliant expositor of linguistics and a vital critic of the US abroad, while Oliver Kamm dismisses him as a kneejerk anti-American who is cavalier about his sources.

Top five

1 Noam Chomsky linguistics expert and critic of US foreign policy

2 Umberto Eco writer and academic

3 Richard Dawkins Oxford professor of public understanding of science

4 Vaclav Havel playwright and leader of Czech velvet revolution

5 Christopher Hitchens journalist, author, pro-Iraq war polemicist

[yankeedame]

Like most of the wanking lunatic left Komrade Chomsky is a glutton for attention and an exhibitionist, with "beat off" being the operative description.

In the same vein as Dali and Picasso. Their artistic ability are/were not half so great as their PR and salesmanship abilities.

[Conservatish]

You're right, Lessingham. Chomsky said the "rumors" of the killing fields were "tales of Communist atrocities" based on "unreliable accounts." He also said the executions only "numbered in the thousands" and were "aggravated by the threat of starvation resulting from American distraction and killing." In other words, it was America's fault.

He's quite fond of any and every communist dictator known to mankind, it seems. No small wonder he's highly regarded by the Left.

[HISSKGB]

Chomsky is said to be a world famous linguist. Linguists are supposed to able to analyze languages, but Chomsky is known to speak nothing but English. How do his PR promoters explain that deficiency?

[verity]

I am disappointed you were not selected. :-)

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

It's a very white list, too. No Blacks, no Asians, no Hispanics, no Native Americans.

There are a few from South America and Asia on the original list. Interestingly, another on the original list is said to be from a country called "Palestine", wherever that is.

[GSlob]

Wrong spelling: not "intellectual" but "antillectual". But what is Havel doing in such a disreputable company?

[Conservatish]

You know, Hiss, that is a damned good question! I have found that intellectual elites look condescendingly on those who fail to learn a second language, as though they're selfish and only want to ignore the rest of the world. I guess they're more than willing to overlook it in some as long as the one language they do speak is used to bash America!