CITIZINE REVIEWS

Noam Chomsky
The New War on Terrorism: Fact and Fiction
(The G7 Welcoming Committee, 2003)

by Mark Prindle

If you don't know Noam, he's a bigtime leftist author and orator. I personally had never heard any of his work until this one.

For some reason I was expecting an exciting, fun, yellow journalism-style "spoken wordist" like Jello Biafra (who likes Noam a lot and has released several of his CDs). So imagine my Generation X letdown at this boring old man with the squeaky, crackly, flat voice droning on and on and on about all of these boring facts. Believe me, this guy was no Adolf Hitler!

Let's try that again. See, I like to think of myself as "interested in news," but as it turns out, I think I'm only interested in interesting news. Or at least news presented in an interesting manner. And believe me, I realize this is pathetic.

Hell, quite frankly, I'd probably be interested in reading all of the information Noam shares on this release if it were packaged in a Hustler between a bunch of hardcore pornography and gross jokes. But instead, it's presented in a raspy, squeaking monotone that doesn't just quickly make me tune out -- it actively irritates me.

And again, this is completely my own fault, but I'm a very aurally focused person, and I can't get past the fact that Noam has a very annoying voice! He sounds like he's fighting laryngitis the entire time (maybe he is for all I know), and he never seems to have any passion (or even much interest) in what he's saying. Maybe he's smart as hell; certainly many people like the guy. But I'll never know until I read one of his books because he's about as pleasant to listen to as Harry Carey, who's not only dead but also unpleasant to listen to!

Ah yes! The actual content! Noam discusses attacks on the US, why they hate us, US-run terrorism, etc., etc. As a NYC dweller who experienced the horror of 9/11 first-hand, perhaps I'm too close to the subject to get much out of such a cold dissertation on the topic.

I always hated storytime in elementary school too. I just don't follow along very well … my mind wanders. You should have seen me on this conference call at work today. I doodled ridiculous pictures in my notebook for a full hour and a half, then pretended I knew what was going on. Strangely, I discovered that I did know what was going on. It was all pretty obvious. Which, quite frankly, might be another reason that this CD does nothing for me. But that would be giving myself too much credit; my sense of self-worth is far too low for anything like that.

And that's my opinion of the new Noam Chomsky CD. Writing this review reminds me of how I sometimes feel guilty walking into a book store with a book in my hand. Know why? For making the book store's employees worry about whether I brought the book in or stole it from them. How do I know that they do? I don't. They probably don't give a shit. But I feel guilty nonetheless. And that's why I'm now seeing a behavioral therapist.

I feel guilty writing this review, because the record label was kind enough to send it to me free of charge in exchange for a review. But honesty is important too. And I honestly can't sit through this damned thing.

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Reader Comments

From: Keith (DecaKidd@aol.com)
Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2003

Mark,
Do everyone a favor and don't criticize politics anymore. And if you do, please talk about the subject matter rather than talking about yourself through the whole article and criticizing aspects of a person's
work that have no relevance to the actual subject matter. Thank you.

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