Moaning Is Halfway To A Solution

national | arts and media | feature

Wednesday January 25, 2006 20:02

by Barstool Philosopher

Chomsky, Southside Prats, Primetime And The Irish Times.

Irish Times billboard

Sometime recently, at least in my perception, it has apparently become unacceptable to criticize something without having an fully explored alternative, and even then your alternative must exist within the exact same framework as the object of criticsm, and perferably be as close to it so as to make no difference.

What am I talking about you may ask? Well two recent miniscule media related events have stuck in my mind, perhaps for no other reason than my cantankerous grumpy nature fixating upon them, but nonetheless I feel it’s a mildly important issue which while it may be nothing new, certainly bears a hearing.

The first issue to get my goat was one of the posters which formed part of the recent idiotic advertising campaign by the Irish Times. You may have seen the campaign’s scrawlings around Dublin festooning our walls with its inane message of “We look at life, you live it”, which is funny given that the last time I read the Times it seemed more apparent that they were looking up their own arses rather than at my life. Well one such poster caught my eye one morning on my way to work, It protrays activism as seen through the eyes of the media with a poster being held high saying “Replace capitalism with something nicer” followed below by the Irish Times witty reply “Any suggestions?”. Now I must admit I chuckled momentarily before getting pissed off at yet another portrayal of activists as moaners with no practical solution and therefore worthy of derision.

Now you see I like moaning, and think if everyone moaned when they should we might actually know whats going on. No instead we’re supposed to shut up until we have an alternative. This is patently riduclous, as its through the act of others moaning and grumping about things that we become aware of the problems of our fellow man, that we raise issues and ultimately get more heads than just our own thinking about a solution. Moaning should begin before you have a solution not after. Now of course the irony here is that the obscured activist in the poster probably does have a solution in mind, but as per usual the media entity in question couldn’t be arsed asking them, as a few pics of scruffy people and a suitably derisable byline serves their needs a lot better.

This of course brings me on to my second point, which is that even when you do profer a solution it will not even be heard, nevermind considered, it if takes too much imagination on the part of the listener to see how it could be feasible, or departs to quickly from their cosy little world of whats supposedly practical and what isn’t. What brought this thought to my mind was the recent visit by Chomsky to our miserable little land of gombeen men and war criminals, his subsequent interview on primetime and some annoyingly vacuous comments by a bloke at work on the subject of his visit.

Now you see the bloke at work tells me he has tickets “to the amnesty gig with chommers” who he “just adores loike” and has read lots of chomsky’s books (well the small pamphlet ones at least, he later clarified) and goes on to say in his irritating D4 accent that “whoile loike I agree with him about the whole Iraq thing, he never has an actual alternative you know loike”. At this point as you can imagine I began to stew slowly, bubbling and trying to contain myself from boiling over and strangling the “point of ‘ken” drinker in case his brain damage was contagious. After lowering the heat I tried to explain to him using single syllable words that for one thing Chomsky does offer solutions when pressed and has written and spoken loads on a very simple solution, or way forward at least, which is the process of challenging and dismantling unnecessary power structures, and of opposing systems of domination and oppression. This process I explained is more commonly referred to, even by Chomsky himself as a central defining component of Anarchism. I then went on to explain that while it mightn’t fit in his tiny brain the reason Chomsky, his supposed idol, doesn’t waste his time positing lots of little trivial solutions that just move the pieces around is that his many analyses, which this rugby playing former student of St Fuckwits southside college for young Trustafarians has supposedly read, has lead him to the conclusion, along with many others, thats whats wrong with the world requires something more than reducing the number of troops in Iraq from 100 to 99 or taking actions based on the continually recurring media led frenzy to “do something” about the latest situation that has been whipped up from nowhere and suddenly requires urgent attention. Instead I explained that Chomsky, like all people with at least a modicum of intelligence, has no fear of placing his solutions outside the context of whats normally deemed acceptable or tenable or pragmatic if that’s what basic human decency and morality require.

I told him that the fact that doe-eyed liberally-blinkered spoons like himself and the celebrity-coattail hangers-on that are his ilk, many of whom attended the Chomsky talks, can’t see or accept these solutions is not a sign that Chomsky’s never offered them. Rather it is a sign of his own bias towards the bankrupted values of the society in which he lives and his own subconsious inability to accept anything which would force him to consider that the way they he lives may need to change beyond throwing a few extras euro’s in the amnesty tin.

Needless to say this didn’t go down well with amnesty boy and he said “loike no way is chommers an Anarchist, I mean loike he’s against voilence ‘an all”. I was stunned for a moment by the sudden IQ-lowering vortex that had its epicentre in his presence, but fighting the waves of intellectual entropy I manged to give him a quick “left-wing political currents 101” and informed him that not only was “chommers” an anarchist but that he was taking time out of his schedule to drop in and practically have tea with some of the local anarchist groups while he was here, as he does most places he goes, which is surely a vague indication of where he stands politically and in terms of a “solution”.

But my efforts were apparently useless as he mananged to discount my cogent arguments with a flick of his quiff, and went off to pretend it hadn’t happened so he could enjoy the Chomsky talk in smug self satisfaction of being with the in-crowd while wallowing in his own joy at being politically astute enough to quote Chomsky and compassionate enough to be in amnesty, yet not have to do a fuckin’ thing that would inconvenience his gorgeous little life.

So thinking I’d got that all that over with, I sat down the next day to watch prime time to see what spin our beloved state sponsored media was weaving today, only to be confronted with Chomsky being harangued again, because “some of his detractors say he offers no solutions” as if even if that was true, it was now a crime. I mean when did criticism and analysis in its own right and as an end in it self become wrong.

Problems and their solutions don’t come packaged together, one grows from the other. The same people don’t have to be the realizers of both, and the strength or value of your criticism is not dependent on your ability to also have have quick snappy alternatives that don’t go against the grain. Strangely enough I think moaning first and then having a bit of analysis second and then finally taking the path of least harm is far superior to making hasty quick decisions to take action and then letting the chips fall where they may all over the bodies of dead people.

And with that thought, I turned off the television and went to bed, glad that I’m getting old enough to be a grumpy old bugger and, and with a conviction to moan loudly for as long as I can about everything I know is wrong in the world, without fear of not having trite consumable solutions at hand, but having the moral clarity to know that stepping back and looking for solutions in a broader context before taking action is the only way forward.

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Comments (21 of 21)

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Excellent work, Man!

by BP

Tue Jan 24, 2006 01:01

A powerful bit of analysis, best article I've seen on here for a good long time - and written in a hugely enjoyable style.

The coiffeur'd Amnesty-Boy you so well describe above constitutes, I reckon, about 60% of the problem in this country - but keep working on him, you will wear the idiot down to reason with enough well-argued moans as demonstrated above.

Just relax a little more while 'treating' him, learning to enjoy his mental distress, then you will have found the true Nirvana.

Great Article

by Joe Sheehan

Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:17

Very good article. I know your pain, I think I must be working with amnesty boys relatives!

Aye, all too familiar.

by Tom

Tue Jan 24, 2006 11:27

Well written and entertaining. I meet too many people, who are happy for the govt , the Irish Times /Indo and RTE to tell them how life IS and Should be.... and aren't used to thinking properly for themseleves beyond choosing the model of car of type of mortgage for their car.

Too familiar indeed

by anon

Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:02

My god a D4 quip, using the world "lioke" and criticising Amnesty letter receivers, fresh and earth shattering I dont think so, Bungle herself could have written it.

Rolling my eyes towards the ceiling

by chris

Tue Jan 24, 2006 23:31

"which is the process of challenging and dismantling unnecessary power structures, and of opposing systems of domination and oppression."

Yeah. When people say "solution", they usually mean something that's not impossibly vague. Like that sentence. Which is just a copout, idealism, or meaningless. (take your pick).

OK, dismantling unnecessary power structures. How? What about people who support those power structures? How do you convince them? Or do you convince them? Or do you just employ violence against them? And so on.

Anarchists had huge popular support when they agitated for things that actual people actually gave a shit about. Like the 8-hour work day. Not vague philosphical abstractions. Buy you know, good luck overthrowing all hierarchy.

c

Stop rolling your eyes and read the article !

by The anti-chris (bad pun!)

Wed Jan 25, 2006 08:58

>>"which is the process of challenging and dismantling unnecessary
>>power structures, and of opposing systems of domination and oppression."

>Yeah. When people say "solution", they usually mean something that's
>not impossibly vague. Like that sentence. Which is just a copout, idealism, or meaningless. (take your pick).

I think you've missed the original posters point which is that sometimes solutions are impossibly vague, just due the complex nature of things. He then questions whether the correct course is to plough ahead without a bulls notion on some half baked solution thats sounds good and wins votes, or is better to stand back and come at things with a longer term goal of reversing the source causes of problem rather than its latest fucked up manifestation.

You yourself have fallen into the trap he mentioned, because you've decided his solution is rubbish and therefore no doubt if this article was by someone notable would probably go on to incorrectly say "he doesn't offer any solutions"

>OK, dismantling unnecessary power structures. How? What about
>people who support those power structures? How do you convince them?
>Or do you convince them? Or do you just employ violence against them? And so on.

The point here I think is that this isn't a definite plan, its a moral stance. So when faced with seemingly insurmountable problems, rather than press ahead with any old shit, its better to fall back on sound moral principles, and in your own way(and with others if you can convince them (of course without unnecessary violence you little shit stirrer)) just take a stand against that which you see as wrong. If you have no clear way forward then better surely to at least oppose that which is wrong, and hope that in process of realization your oppostion may bring, solutions might arise or be clarified.

>Anarchists had huge popular support when they agitated for things
>that actual people actually gave a shit about.

Well they still do, just look at the host of campaigns in recent years, most of which had anarchist involvement

>Not vague philosphical abstractions.

Better them than vague feckless political solutions that just get people elected and fuck the world up even more

>Buy you know, good luck overthrowing all hierarchy.

Thanks, we'll need it!

wit...................................pleasure to read

by iosaf mac d.

Wed Jan 25, 2006 21:52

gurb maith agat. (((we got a cobbled together school essay on media as the last feature when the reason for chomsyites was in the gaff)))
this is an improvement. meta-linguistics
:-)

Why wont we rise up

by Panzraam

Wed Jan 25, 2006 22:52

All middle class people from south Dublin are vapid, empty egomanicas . Good point well made. It always amazes me that they manage to maintain their positions of power and influence, while the wise earthy proletariat remain downtrodden in filthy, illiterate ignorance. Go figure?

depression

by observer

Thu Jan 26, 2006 00:12

well, if we just keep stressing ourselves out, we'll never become normal human beings!

Not a bad attempt at the Mary O'Carroll-Kellys

by gay geori

Thu Jan 26, 2006 01:48

gg at bearla dot ie

but there are a lot of chommers fans out there judging by the bank balance of chumpsky himself...

"Chomsky is rich precisely because he has been such an enormously successful capitalist. Despite the anti-profit rhetoric, like any other corporate capitalist he has turned himself into a brand name. As John Lloyd puts it, writing critically in the lefty New Statesman, Chomsky is among those open to being commodified -- that is, to being simply one of the many wares of a capitalist media market place, in a way that the badly paid and overworked writers and journalists for the revolutionary parties could rarely be."

And why take it out on Amnesty ?

chomsky

by Dole

Thu Jan 26, 2006 09:18

I've read some Chomsky, he gets on my wick at times, (a little smug) but makes some great observations, (yes and plain solutions). There does seem to be elements out there who go about their business giving a nod to the left while living on the right and loving it. You know the type of people who work for any cause to help bolster their portfolio for college/university etc.
who then graduate and help perpetuate, nay rotate the hamster wheel of neo-liberal values whilst chuckling at Brendan O'Connor and Gerry Ryan.
Yes a lot of D.4 types are inbred twats, I'm from D.8 and some of us are scumbags who feel the might of john law more so as we don't come from D.4, but these stereotypes (with some truth to them) are an example of 'the man' (RTE/Sunday Independent and any other gutter rag with more tits than issues), trying to keep us all in-fighting and by god we are and have always been the best at that.
Whatever laboratory Harney came from, I don't know. Whatever Brendan Grace skit Ahern came to life from (Purple Rose of Cairo style) I don't know. But I do know working class people who vote Fianna Fail and upper middle-class types who consider themselves socialists. Yet put them all in a room and it’s the parish disco all over again with the 8's on one side and the 4's on the other. I guess my point is we only react to what immediately affects us, so as long as we chase the carrot on the end of the stick, in the belief that one day we might get a bite, the longer middle class types will fane caring for society until the corporate nest is feathered for after graduation and working class types will be too busy working straight after leaving school to have the time to ponder such things.
Meanwhile baby organs go missing as do the millions of tax payers euros on equestrian centres and marinas, but hey the pint didn't go up.

kickin' it old school for Dublin South Central and my man B.I. in the sky and so forth.

Reply to gay geori and Dole (the previous two commenters)

by Michael

Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:13

Gay Geori, you can read almost all of Chomsky's political writings on Z-Net for free, same for the MP3 and sometimes Quicktime recordings of his lectures and debates. Many of his pamphlets have been published by folks who otherwise don't make much money. But with the profits from Chomsky(tm -- haha) sales, they can afford to print other less-popular work. And besides, I don't know what the author you quote means by "anti-profit rhetoric". Examples?

Dole, I think I understand what you're saying, but I also think it's worse than that these days. Walk around the campus of any Dublin college today and you'll find the FF Youth and Accounting and Finance-type student societies are jammed full of Charlie McCreevy wonnabes from D.8, D.9 and the Midlands.

Calm down, calm down!

by Ah!

Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:52

Try not to get angry at every little thing, a lot of the right say that we on the left have no sense of humour you just wrote a 1,500 word article on why lefties have no sense of humour. Next time you see something like that, take a deep breath realise they are a bunch of prats and get angry over the occupation of Iraq or exploitation of workers etc. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack!

reports, audio files, tv links from chomskys visit to ireland

by dunk

Thu Jan 26, 2006 14:40

fuspey at yahoo dot co dot uk

anarchist superstar, and meejit from this weeks edition of village (these articles not online yet, should be up soon)
http://www.villagemagazine.ie

listen to all of chomskys lecture on newstalk site and his interview by eamon dunphy
http://www.newstalk106.ie/noam-chomskys.html

Prime time interview
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0119/primetime.html

full text of Professor Chomsky's lecture - amnesty site, still not up yet
http://www.amnesty.ie/user/content/view/full/5056

ZMAG: Chomsky's Irish Times interview
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73950

Noam Chomsky's TCD / Amnesty International Lecture at the RDS, Dublin January 2006
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73921

Dublin: Noam Chomsky to deliver Annual Amnesty Lecture
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73134.

Chomsky Backs M18 demonstrations
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73857

Chomsky in UCD for 3 events over 3 days (Tuesday, Jan 17 )
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73781

Chomsky in UCD for 3 events over 3 days ( Friday, Jan 20 - much discussion about who did and did not get to go to WSM discussion with Chomsky )
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73780

there might be an imc-ie recording of WSM discussion, or hopefully an audio recording at least

noam chomsky in ireland

To Indymedia Ed's or anyone else

by Michael R.

Thu Jan 26, 2006 15:29

Any chance of getting a better shot of the Irish Times add about "Replace Capitalism with something Nicer......Any Suggestions?"

Ya cant really read the one above.

I know I gotta get a camera. Become the media etc!! : )

Better luck next time

by Topper

Thu Jan 26, 2006 15:58

Enjoyed that ham-fisted TCS article attempting to expose Chomsky as a hypocrite. The damning evidence against Chomsky was that he made money for Pluto Press (a left-wing British publisher that does an excellent job of printing books that wouldn't see the light of day otherwise) and Alternative Tentacles (a radical record company founded by Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, which also does a good job of putting out music and other stuff that the mainstream music industry wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole).

As was pointed out, you can get huge chunks of his work for free on the net.

And please, using a quote from John Lloyd to discredit him? Lloyd is a slavish Blairite who believes that his master's shit doesn't stink. He's hardly going to be able to emphatise with Chomsky.

Nice try though!

Vapid arguments

by Seán Ryan

Thu Jan 26, 2006 16:08

It always strikes me as pathetic, that folks who realising they cannot defeat an argument, will instead attack the person who made it.

These very same people, I might add will mostly demand that others grow up.

Well if "growing up" means I must become blind and ignorant, include me out.

A very readable piece of work Mr./Mrs/Miss Barstool Philosopher, a very well put argument. As for the humour, I still can't stop laughing.

Please write more.

Sláinte,
Seán

Amazing

by Sean

Thu Jan 26, 2006 16:35

A few things I don't understand:

Why insult someone for their accent? This guy didn't choose it. Whats the difference between insulting that accent and a north city accent? And, by what this ramble implies, maybe accent is somehow linked to intelligence. Nice line of thought.

So, since you're so fundamentally critical of this guy coming from a specific area of Dublin, do you denounce others in the same way? Those from, say, England, or United States, or Nigeria? Again, this guy had no influence of where he was born.

Why not look at where Chomsky lives. It's the equivalent to D4. except, Chomsky had a choice, as he and his wife bought the house, and chose the location.

Of all the great results of the chomsky visit, this site focuses on snide comments about some guy's accent. Well done to the author, and well done to the editors for making it such a featured article. The irony involved here would be amusing if it was not so disastrous.

f*cks sake

by dingers

Thu Jan 26, 2006 17:10

What are you talking about? The author mentions the guy's accent maybe three times in the entire article.

It's just a humorous aside in an article about how the media and liberals view dissent which does not fit within (obligatory Chomsky quote) "the permitted spectrum of debate" etc etc

The author is not focusing criticism on people from a certain area, but using this person as an example of a widespread mindset.

If that's how he talked, that's how he talked....... oh, why bother.......... trolls and idiots will never listen

Nice article. Kudos

-->

by Conor.J. McGowan - Irish Socialist Network - personal capacity

Thu Jan 26, 2006 17:22

I don’t think that a “fully explored” alternative is necessary in order to have an opinion about something, but I do think that you should at least try and think of a better solution to any given problem than the solution you are complaining about. This may also mean doing away with the basis of the problem, but if so - you should be able to articulate that.

After getting my fill of Noam Chomsky last week (including 1 unanswered question), and not being a fan of the Irish Times myself, I can see the basis of your frustration. As an activist in UCD for 4 years now, I’ve only ever seen ¼ of the Chomsky crowd actually turn up at demos or actually try and affect change from their position of privilege.

To me, complaint is the first stage of resistance. It is not good enough to just complain about something. After anger & complaint, one must think of alternatives, formulate them, and demand them – then get active. The power of analysis is that it is objective – the problem with opinions is that they are generally subjective. In formulating alternatives, the objective should always rule over the subjective.

Personal experience should develop into fairly articulate demands with concrete reasons.

Link:

http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo.htm

_________

As an aside, I come from Blackrock myself. I don’t have a problem with my accent, nor do I attempt to hide it. Nobody should be ashamed of their accent, whatever it is. The Amnesty member you depicted is obviously an idiot for many reasons – but not his accent!

It is remarkable that so many people are unaware of Chomsky’s genuine anarchism. The reason for this is as much Noams as it is his fawning Irish Times reading “fans”. A quick look at who organised the trip hardly reads like an A-Z of radicalism:

· Amnesty Intl – A group that could, at best – be called Liberal.
· UCD College Authorities – most of the head honchos around here are neo-liberals I can tell you.
· The L&H – who invited Justin Barret out to campus last year for a chat on immigration.
· UCD Philsoc – who allowed Prof Gerard Casey (of Catholic Solidarity fame) chair their meeting.
· The Irish Dept of Foreign Affairs – who facilitated a special passport for forgetful Noam. No wonder he wasn’t too keen to criticise Irish immigration policy.

Remember – Bakunin and Marx were booted out of various states in their time. If Noam is concerned that some chump in an amnesty t-shirt has a half-baked idea of what Chomsky stands for, the reason may be as much Noams friends as it is a lack of critical or analytical capacity on the letter-writers part.

join the list Seán

by one of imc

Fri Jan 27, 2006 14:42

& take up your cause there.

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Moaning Is Halfway To A Solution

Comments (21 of 21)