{"id":34389,"date":"2024-06-16T14:18:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T21:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34389"},"modified":"2024-06-16T14:18:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T21:18:02","slug":"news-of-chomskys-ill-health-prompts-outpouring-of-gratitude-for-lion-of-the-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/news-of-chomskys-ill-health-prompts-outpouring-of-gratitude-for-lion-of-the-left\/","title":{"rendered":"News of Chomsky’s Ill Health Prompts Outpouring of Gratitude for ‘Lion of the Left’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Noam<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Noam Chomsky is pictured during a press conference after visiting former Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva in Curitiba on September 20, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Heuler Andrey\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So many thousands of people have stories about how he has changed their lives,” said one admirer. “He certainly changed mine.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jun 12, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

News that renowned American linguist, dissident, and author Noam Chomsky<\/a> is hospitalized in Brazil following a massive stroke he suffered last year was met with an avalanche of accolades and well wishes from members of the international left on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valeria Chomsky told<\/a>The Associated Press<\/em> that her 95-year-old husband\u2014a laureate professor at the University of Arizona and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)\u2014is currently in a S\u00e3o Paulo hospital. She took him there on an ambulance jet with two nurses after he was able to travel from the United States following his June 2023 stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chomsky told<\/a>Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/em> that although her husband has difficulty speaking and the right side of his body is numb from the stroke, he follows the news and “when he sees images of the war in Gaza<\/a>, he raises his left arm in a gesture of lament and anger.” She said his condition has improved significantly, and he is seeing a neurologist, speech therapist, and pulmonologist daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, people close to Chomsky say he is unlikely to return to public life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Noam is the most influential U.S. intellectual ever. Period,” Rutgers School of Communications Professor Andrew Kennis\u2014whose book Digital Age Resistance<\/em> contains a foreword co-authored by Chomsky\u2014told Common Dreams<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He has been the largest influence on my life in any way, personal or professional” Kennis added. “As for movements, no other thinker helped positively shape and mold anti-imperialsm analysis and criticism of the U.S. bullying the world on behalf of Wall Street and Silicon Valley better and more effectively than him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“His work has defined the terms of countless debates and he’s been a tireless advocate for\u2014and guide on the path to\u2014a better future.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. journalist and political analyst Anand Giridharadas <\/strong>hailed<\/a> Chomsky\u2014whom he interviewed in 2020\u2014as a “lion of the left.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It would be difficult to overestimate the impact Chomsky’s work has had,” Giridharadas wrote<\/a> for The.Ink<\/em> Wednsday. “Beyond the total transformation of his academic field (he’s widely acknowledged as the father of modern linguistics and the main force behind the cognitive turn in the sciences), his political impact has been immeasurable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a writer, activist, analyst, and critic of power, and likely the most visible left public intellectual of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, his work has defined the terms of countless debates and he’s been a tireless advocate for\u2014and guide on the path to\u2014a better future,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the more than 100 books published by Chomsky\u2014who was once voted<\/a> the world’s top public intellectual in an international poll\u2014four are specifically about Israel<\/a> and Palestine<\/a>. He has been conspicuously absent from the debate over Israel’s current assault on Gaza, which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This below is a letter Noam #Chomsky<\/a> kindly wrote in 1995, when I asked "how do you keep your hope alive."

If you have examples of Chomsky's kindness, diligence and intelligence, please share them.https:\/\/t.co\/b2AFxmserE<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/xSvAIVPed4<\/a><\/p>— Marc Hudson (@marcsrhudson) June 8, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>