Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause

Watch this documentary after watching "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media" (1992 documentary)

After watching Manufacturing Consent "Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause" (2003 documentary), is a more up-to-date extension. It includes a few more items that you may not have heard of or only saw through a filter.

His description of the Government and a few others reminds me of a magic show; watch this hand and not the other.

The downside of the documentary is it is a handful of mixed soundbites with a focus problem. Just once it would be nice to see a Chomsky speech where the only interruption may be a heckler or two, instead of a bunch of verbalized editing.

This was an eye-opener for me. I just read Noam Chomsky's book about September 11th (called "9-11") and I was really interested in learning more. I saw this film on TV and I was amazed at the man's ability to recall facts and figures from articles, interviews, etc. He really is one of the smartest speakers in the world today. His wife, Carol actually steals the show as she explains what it's like to live with such a mind. Interesting tidbits from Carol was that Noam reads 6 newspapers a day and over 80 journals every year. The fact that he's really into his grandchildren and to meeting with students and talking about the issues made me see him more as a grandfather than a radical intellectual. The reflections and insights from others in the film are equally revealing. It becomes clear that Chomsky has influenced successive generations of people and still exerts enormous influence in the world today. There is so much interesting bits from Chomsky on so many issues I am hoping to either see it on TV again or in the theatres or on video so I can pay more attention to what he's talking about. Try and get it at your local video store that specializes in non-Hollywood blockbuster films and prepare to be challenged by Chomsky and his ideas.

This is a really interesting perspective on Noam Chomsky that I haven't seen before. Chomsky is one of the most out-spoken critics of the US and it's government and this film really showcases him in his element. The film is broken into chapters on various issues with Chomsky discussing the issues with students and other intellectuals. This I thought was a really interesting because I have never really seen Chomsky engaged in debate with other people. It's funny how he challenges people on their views and is patient enough to listen to others try and attack his in return. Even at his age, his mind is as sharp as a knife and you can see him formulating in his mind his rebuttal to others comments. And when he unleashes his response it's often to the point and accurate (and right). I read somewhere that "Rebel Without A Pause" is the title Bono from U2 gave Chomsky and it's very appropriate. Having not seen any one else with the encyclopedic knowledge of Chomsky, it's easy to see why his is one of the great minds of the 20th century. It's sad that more people don't hear his views these days as they are really on the mark. And with what looks like an Iraq war made on false pretenses (of which Chomsky already suggests in this film which was made BEFORE the war happened) you can see how he's still ahead of the game. This is a great film and if you can find it in a indy theatre or on tv you should check it out because you'll be learning a bit more about the world you live in in the process.

I have been a reader of Chomsky for years and own several of his books. I also own a couple of his CDs and have other audio on my computer. My point: Chomsky is by no means a stranger to me.

This familiarity made the video bittersweet. The bitter part was that the vast majority of the information was not new to me and I have heard Chomsky say these things in other places before. So as a learning tool, it was more refresher than anything shocking or ground-breaking.

But this sin't to say it was without value. All the stuff he should have been talking about in 2003, he was. He speaks of Saddam Hussein who was our ally, of media controlled by corporations, by the control of the people being by fear (which is, although he never says it, Machiavellian policy).

But this video was also sad, because it showed how truly old and frail Chomsky has become. Still energetic, but he seems to be demanding more interesting sweaters. And at one point it looks like he's addressing the Sun Room of a nursing home (he's not). He is so old, in fact, his wife has grown to look just like him - I would have assumed she was his sister. But the sad reality for me was that someday not long in the future, this man - the most intelligent man alive - will be dead.

Although this film is no masterpiece, Chomsky discusses topics everyone should be thinking about. Filmed just prior to the start of the Iraq war, he describes the mechanism of fear as a means of controlling the masses.

His words are eerily prophetic; "When the fear runs out of Iraq, then it'll be Iran who becomes the imminent threat."

Wow.

Chomsky understands the ways of the world, Republican-style; create fear, disseminate fear, use fear for corporate growth, make fear the ultimate tool of ultimate ignorance. If it were made today, the content could be waved-off as trite, but these are words from 2003!

Chomsky predicts results of events of actions of those days before the Iraq war, and we see those predictions become uncanny reality before our eyes ...sadly, because it reveals the ultimate truth: Americans are cattle.