more juvenility Archived Message
Posted by rippon on January 19, 2021, 7:19 pm, in reply to "Here's a link to extract from Chomsky book on Covid"
My point is that, in this talk, for some reason, neither of them see fit to mention the covid crisis. I find that bizarre. But you apparently don't because, after all, Chomsky wrote about it in a book nearly a year ago. And you apparently don't think it's bizarre at all that an economist (Wolff) chooses to say nothing about the world's currently biggest economic policy: destroying millions of small businesses to the massive enrichment of global corporations. (Perhaps you have a link to some written words from Wolff about covid too.) Regarding those book words from Chomsky: Much of it is just a mundane recounting of the chronology of events. All he really says is that the covid crisis highlights failures of capitalism - primarily the much heavier impact on poorer people. But that applies to all crises. Whatever the crisis, the rich and powerful profit from it (because they're always in the position to exploit the opportunities) where the poor and vulnerable must bear the costs. So: no shit, Sherlock. He says nothing about what the right response to covid might be; he assumes that WHO's output is sound and the mainstream tactics, e.g. lockdowns, are right. He mentions the vulnerability of poor countries, e.g. in Africa. But Africa is a conundrum: "Africa has done much better as a continent than the rest of the world. For scholars, this is a conundrum. Why is it that the continent which is usually seen as the home to all of humanities’ woes is managing and responding much better than countries such as Europe and North America?" – Professor Ismail Rashid Regarding your fatuous swipe at Vernon Coleman's armchair: Both Wolff and Chomsky have done a much better job (than Coleman) in conveying 'fake' gravitas. Wolff gives himself the majestic backdrop of a powerful cityscape. And Chomsky 'can't resist' posing in front of his packed bookcase. Now, I've put those words above in quote marks because I don't believe either Wolff or Chomsky are actually fake people at all. But since you want to speak about Coleman in that juvenile sneering way, then my point is that one can easily play that fatuous game with Wolff and Chomsky too.
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