My Letter To Chomsky

The following letter was originally submitted to Noam Chomsky's MySpace page (yes, he has a fanclub) and then forwarded to his MIT email address. I'm posting it here because I thought a few of you might be interested in leaving some comments about it.

Noam-
You've done a great job putting the spotlight on the atrocities committed by the world governments and you've opened the eyes of many people and started them down a less ignorant path. That said, I do have a few issues with you that I hope will be considered in good faith.

The Earth is currently experiencing the most devastating period of mass-extinction ever (www.well.com/user/davidu/extinction.html) but I haven't heard you mention this much and wonder what course of action you would suggest to stop the bio-devastation. This relates to a question I had about N30 (the "Battle in Seattle" 1999). Do you think the corporations that fund the destruction of the Earth should have attention drawn to them in such a dramatic way? Like the GAP with their ties to deforestation, nevermind sweatshops. Should it have it's windows smashed as an expression of utter intolerance? Should we tolerate what they do or should we just not shop there? A similiar thing happened to McDonalds. These corporate industries are destroying the planet, what should we do about them?

A big issue I have with you is on the topic of peak oil. You've suggested that the consequences of peak oil won't really be felt for decades and that alternative energy will provide solutions but, with all due respect, I think that is the line of the media not at all backed up by hard science. Every aspect of modern life is tied to petroleum from transportation to agricultural petro-chemicals to plastics to asphalt. If you don't believe me, check out the dieoff.com website.

Well, I really don't want to take up too much space but I would love to start a dialogue about these things so that they can be clarified. Oh, and I also wonder, since you are known as a revolutionary, where you stand on the modern revolutionary movement. Is there one? Will it sprout out of protests or groups like adbusters or crimethinc.org? Why aren't people in the streets? Will we be in time? Should we be (and with what demeanor)?