Is Chomsky coming? Good grief no. Don't you think he deserves one day off every decade or so?
Isn't, er, having a
birthday party for an American academic kinda creepy and sychophantic?
Yes. That's why this won't be a birthday party.
So then, a celebration, a
hagiography. Don't you think it is still kind of odd?
As Bill Clinton said, it depends what your definition of "is" is.
This is going to be a place for activists and scholars (and
even activist-scholars) to meet and compare notes about all sorts of
things. Most of the people who come will, it's true, be very
appreciative of Chomsky's work and also broadly sympathetic to the
positions he takes. But anyone who wants to come and talk and
listen with respect
for each other and the limited time available, can come.
Why, what are you hoping
to achieve? More converts for the Chomsky cult?
Gosh, yes, your forensic questioning has found us out.
No, really, what are you
trying to achieve?
To create a space for the discussion of a whole host of issues, and for
people to swap notes and contact details. There's a list of
potential workshops if you click on the workshops and other sessions
bit above.
And that's it?
Well, at the end of the day anyone who wants to can pose in a picture
that we'll send to Noam. There might even be some vegan
birthday cake. Who knows..
There'll also be a book of articles circulated before the day, and one
of them will address the cult of Chomsky issue that you so sanely and
sensibly raised earlier....