AUDIENCE: You've had a chance to look over
the syllabus for this course.
What value do you think it might have for learners
in the outside world, and would you
recommend that they take a look at these readings
and try to apply them to their own lives?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Yeah, quite definitely.
I mean, if we want to have any constructive impact
on the world, any interchange with the world that
will improve it will deal with the innumerable problems that
exist.
It has to be based on understanding
of social, political, economic reality.
Otherwise, you can't act in any serious way,
just as you couldn't go into a chemistry lab
and conduct an experiment unless you
knew something good chemistry.
Otherwise, you could mix chemicals and make funny smells
and so on.
But if you want to do something serious,
you have to understand first.
And the syllabus of the course and conduct of the course
aimed at and I think succeeds in providing
the kind of fundamental understanding and challenge
open questions that people have to think about
if they want to be able to participate
in a meaningful way in the general society.