Happy Birthday Noam Chomsky!

ode to an eternal journey to decenter the empire

A lot has changed since the 80s. And a lot has stayed the same. The necessisty of criticizing US foreign policy, for example.

(Image: Noam Chomsky in the 80s giving a lecture. Still from the outtakes of Manufacturing Consent.)

While my journey as a lifelong sceptic if not active resistor of imperialism did not begin with Noam Chomsky, my chosen mode of resistance, however ironically was solidified by his critique of media. Precisely, and concisely, he sparked in me a deep understanding about the nature of power, and along with the realization that the media is too powerful, too important, to be left only in the hands of those ‘in power”.

Manufacturing Consent - the book came out in 1988. Manufacturing Consent - the film by Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick was released in 1992, when I saw it first.

While his books are dense he was immensely entertaining to hear in person when he spoke. It was this energy that Mark and Peter set out to document in their epic journey.

The Spark for Mark

I sat down for an interview with Mark recently reflecting on the process and on what it was like to follow Professor Noam Chomsky around with a camera. Today, in honour of Noam Chomksy’s 96th birthday I’ve created a short vignette tribute to Noam and to the filmmaking process undertaken over several years by Peter and Mark.

We plan to create a series of shorts from the archive in the coming year. Here is the first!

Peter Wintonick sadly died over a decade ago, gone too soon, his loss is still felt. As I dive into the DVD extras and outtakes he edited years ago, it’s a bittersweet reminder of his brilliance and sensibility. I wish he was here to see what we’ve gotten up to.

(Image: Peter Wintonick asking a group of youth if they have heard of Noam Chomsky. Still from the outtakes of Manufacturing Consent.)

The Journey continues - our ManufacturingConsent.App just launched

Now we have the app - which you can download and receive updates on our ongoing new content as well as calls to action, and of course the podcast. My hope is that with the Podcast for Intellectual Self Defense I can bring a contemporary lens to this ongoing work. The first pod dropped last week, the first episode of a two-part interview with historian Zach Foster, the second half will be coming up next week.

The entire film remains shockingly relevant. You can watch the entire documentary on our Cool World YouTube Channel.

Thank you Noam!

And Noam, if you see this - thank you for the gifts you have given to us. We hope we are able to honour your work with our small efforts.

Love and Solidarity from all of us.