Clare Fox of the Institute of Ideas (I believe her background is leftist/Marxist) stated to me:
(She asked a question about "civic engagement" at the seminar)
I found this answer astonishing. Taking her arguement on her own terms, I would suggest there's a qualititative difference between a "democratic" Government's complicity in dirty wars and coup d'etats abroad (the constant refrain of the left) and the possibility, one that she herself entertains, that a "democratic" Government might have been involved in such a crime against its own citizens. Her position reveals a deep cynicsm. "Democracy is meaningless, so who cares if 911 was an inside job?"
You know that if the twin towers were in El Salvador or Venuzuala, the left would be the first to jump on that bandwagon. And this is, to mirror an argument made in an earlier post, the irony of left. The left has always marginalised itself by identifying with the cause of the enemies of the day. Sadaam Hussein was a recent example. When the left speaks for the victims of American empire, their opponents accuse them of hating America. If you hate America in the US, you're politically irrelevent. And I'm afriad Chomsky feeds that marginalisation, by cultivating the left's identification with the history of empire's victims.
But I understand the anxiety of the left revealed by the comments on this thread, as "Hero's" like Chavez buddy up to Radical Islamists like Ahmadinejad (and the 911 Movement). Must be a confusing time. You can rest assured you're anti-americanism will prevail whatever happens.
