Blame
"The Taliban could solve a lot of problems by just going away. I've been in favor of that for a while." -Noam Chomsky
That is probably not a verbatim quote. But Chomsky once said something like that in response to a question about his views about how the United States government should respond to the 9/11 attacks. It seems like a banal statement and requires some context to understand why it rings in my ears to this day, probably about 16 years after it was uttered.
After 9/11, Chomsky was among many voices that were criticized and dismissed as a "blame America first" crowd. The criticism was that, despite the United States' obvious position as a victim in the 9/11 attacks, the "blame America" crowd always tried to blame the victim, and not just regarding the 9/11 attacks and an appropriate response.
The criticism had some truth and it also almost completely missed the point, illustrated by Chomsky in the Taliban quote. We only have control over our own actions. The only question that has moral value is what should we do. In life and certainly in politics there is a lot of discussion and finger-pointing about what someone else should do or what someone else is doing wrong.
I also recall a Chomsky quote that said something like: anyone who is serious about solving a problem thinks about and discusses what they can do about it. Anyone who only casts blame or talks about what others should do is not serious about solving a problem and should not be granted the courtesy of being listened to.
Take poverty. It's depressingly common to hear people blame the poor for their own lot in life and use it to rationalize inaction on the issue. It may be that there were things that any given poor person should have done differently to avoid their condition. Fine. Whatever. And also there are things society could've done- like institute a stronger social safety net- to ameliorate that poor person's condition.
The blame is largely pointless. It might be fair, but usually when someone casts blame they are looking to avoid having a role in solving a problem. So many times when Chomsky was supposedly blaming America, he was simply insisting on the principle that someone who wants to solve a problem sees their own role in creating it just as clearly as they see someone else's role in it. Damn near every problem is the result of multiple contributors even if one or another person is to "blame."
That is probably not a verbatim quote. But Chomsky once said something like that in response to a question about his views about how the United States government should respond to the 9/11 attacks. It seems like a banal statement and requires some context to understand why it rings in my ears to this day, probably about 16 years after it was uttered.
After 9/11, Chomsky was among many voices that were criticized and dismissed as a "blame America first" crowd. The criticism was that, despite the United States' obvious position as a victim in the 9/11 attacks, the "blame America" crowd always tried to blame the victim, and not just regarding the 9/11 attacks and an appropriate response.
The criticism had some truth and it also almost completely missed the point, illustrated by Chomsky in the Taliban quote. We only have control over our own actions. The only question that has moral value is what should we do. In life and certainly in politics there is a lot of discussion and finger-pointing about what someone else should do or what someone else is doing wrong.
I also recall a Chomsky quote that said something like: anyone who is serious about solving a problem thinks about and discusses what they can do about it. Anyone who only casts blame or talks about what others should do is not serious about solving a problem and should not be granted the courtesy of being listened to.
Take poverty. It's depressingly common to hear people blame the poor for their own lot in life and use it to rationalize inaction on the issue. It may be that there were things that any given poor person should have done differently to avoid their condition. Fine. Whatever. And also there are things society could've done- like institute a stronger social safety net- to ameliorate that poor person's condition.
The blame is largely pointless. It might be fair, but usually when someone casts blame they are looking to avoid having a role in solving a problem. So many times when Chomsky was supposedly blaming America, he was simply insisting on the principle that someone who wants to solve a problem sees their own role in creating it just as clearly as they see someone else's role in it. Damn near every problem is the result of multiple contributors even if one or another person is to "blame."
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