For a little bit more than a month I was on the road and when I notice a package of considerable size I most certainly hadn’t put infront of my door before I left. As it turned out it contained ten copies of Fliegende Fische. Eine Soziologie des Intellektuellen in 20 Porträts, a book about two handfuls of folks who are generally believed to be intellectuals. I contributed a chapter about the US-american linguist Noam Chomsky who is, I guess, quite famous — and in case you don’t know him, that’s what’s google for.
Since I’m not a big fan of him, don’t expect a hymn of praise, but I managed to control my polemic side too. It’s a slightly scientific book after all. So I focused on how Chomsky comments on the world and not the content of his interventions and essays. Basically I arrived at the conclusion that Chomsky is a modernist through and through and that’s why he’s so successful: He provides the reader with a clear account of what’s good and who’s the bad. That he can’t really explain why someone or something is bad is beside the point, because Chomsky doesn’t want to prove something. For him, everything in the world of politics is evident, and everyone who has a little bit of morality left in her or his mind should be able to agree to his neverending procession of truisms.
Here’s a excerpt:
Selbst manche sonst unerschütterliche Zyniker fasziniert Chomskys ungebrochenes Vertrauen in die menschliche Vernunft, seine gewollt unkonstruktive, kompromisslose Kritik an den Machthabenden, seine Verweigerung jeder Versöhnung oder Unterordnung und seine nie wankende Überzeugung, die Wahrheit, die Tatsachen und die Mehrheit der Menschheit auf seiner Seite zu haben. Er will provozieren, polarisieren, aufrütteln und wirkt mitunter wie der letzte verbliebene Kampfhund der Aufklärung. Jedes Argument ist ihm recht, sofern es nur die Richtigen trifft, und es gilt immer die für seine Gegner nachteiligste Interpretation des Geschehens.
Beside my ramblings the book contains writings about Max Weber, T.W. Adorno, Satre, Michael Moore, Niklas Luhmann etc. Nearly 500 pages, published by the renowned Fischer Verlag, a follow-up is in the making according to one of the editors.
And I’ve got nine copies for sale here and I intent to sell for a hilariously cheap price.
Social Zombies 