Chomsky says public policy, public opinion don’t match up

When Noam Chomsky spoke in April 1991 at Middlebush Auditorium, virtually all of the seats were filled and about 300 people were turned away.

Fifteen years after his first appearance in Columbia, the line to see the professor and social activist deliver the Peace Perspectives Lecture at the Missouri Theatre wrapped around the building and went halfway down the block when the doors first opened at 6 p.m. Monday.

“I always wanted to hear a liberal rabble-rouser,” Ken Sheldon, a member of the MU Psychology Department, said as he stood in line to enter the theater.

Jonthon Coulson, one of the event’s organizers, worked with the Peace Perspectives Gift Fund to bring Chomsky to the Missouri Theatre. The endowment works to bring a social figure to MU each year.

In his monotone speech, Chomsky was critical of Republican and Democratic politics alike and challenged others to think critically about the motives behind them. The audience’s response seemed hesitant; they seemed to wait for cues to laugh at his deadpan, ironic jokes as he painted a gloomy picture of U.S. foreign policy.

Chomsky questioned the validity of what he called President Bush’s “messianic mission” in Iraq and the Middle East, and he criticized other administrations that put forth their public policy regardless of contrary public opinion. Chomsky questioned the liberal media and pointed out hypocritical articles in The New York Times.

“The government needs to take the opinion of the large majority seriously,” he said. “If you are a journalist, publish it.”

The audience responded with a standing ovation.

The Peace Perspectives Lecture was broadcast on KOPN/89.5 FM and simulcast on three television screens to about 150 people Stotler Lounge at Memorial Union.

Workers for the Peace Perspectives Gift Fund and Coulson began scheduling the speech last year at the biggest venue they could reserve, the Missouri Theatre. The University Concert Series had already reserved the larger Jesse Auditorium for the date. Free tickets were available Feb. 8, but the tickets disappeared quickly.

Coulson was thrilled to have one of his heroes come to speak.

“I encourage you to turn some of the talk here tonight into action tomorrow,” Coulson told the audience in his introduction.

Paul Wallace, a professor emeritus of political science at MU, said Chomsky’s visit is “a reflection of the growing anti-war movement in the country.”

Before the lecture, Nikki Swisher, the vice president of communications for the College Republicans at MU, said she welcomes the discourse that Chomsky’s visit will stimulate. Although she disagrees with Chomsky on a number of issues, her biggest criticism of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor is that “he leans communist.” She cited his endorsements of Cuban President Fidel Castro and revolutionary Che Guevara.

Mark Haim, director of Mid-Missouri Peace Works, said Chomsky made clear the need for citizens to “read between the lines” of the mainstream media.

“He tore apart the notion that our government promotes democracy around the world and pointed out the contradiction and lies,” Haim said.

At the end of the lecture, a member of the audience asked Chomsky how he responded to being criticized as un-American. Chomsky replied that he was happy to be among the ranks of the dissenters who criticized the acts of evil “kings.”

— Missourian reporters Doug Meigs and Debrin Foxcroft contributed to this report.