I only knew Noam Chomsky as a brilliant linguist who contributed greatly to the analysis of the English language. I didn’t even know he was still alive, let alone about his political views.

Right after the September 11th incident, I read on the web, a public letter by him. The article itself was rather unremarkable, although its arguments were rational and reasonable. It was when someone on a BBS called him the “final conscience of the U.S.” (or something to that effect) that I got intrigued because I myself occasionally had some questions about some of the U.S., the governing entity’s decisions on the world in the past. That recommendation also mentioned that Chomsky was one of the foremost critics of the U.S. policies.

So, I looked through Amazon.com and found The Chomsky Trilogy: Secrets, Lies and Democracy / The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many / What Uncle Sam Really Wants, a three-(short-)volume collection of his interviews.

It was actually quite an interesting read and a lot of his explanations of the world events involving the U.S. took me a while to digest due to their “extreme” leftists’ views. I’d say if you can handle those, I’d recommend reading at least one of his books. I was a bit in shock the first few days, but ever since I’ve been thinking a lot more about the world portrayed by the media, the governments, etc. I think I was sarcastic to start with, but after his books, I might have become even more so.

Anyway, although his arguments seem reasonable, I don’t think I can fully go along with them because those aren’t the analysis and conclusions that I myself came up with. However, they gave me another angle to view and interpret (at least, try to) the happenings in the world that I exist in. And hopefully, it’s a good thing. :p

His critics call him an anarchist and I can see how his arguments can be used by anarchists. But I don’t think he is one. He is more of a socialist (like some of the Western European socialistic nations). Just because he’s criticizing the U.S. governments’ decisions, it doesn’t mean that he is all for no government at all (at least, in those three volumes).

Actually, his arguments of the multi-national investors controlling the U.S. and the rest of the world make sense a lot if you think about it. I don’t know whether all of his analyses and theories are correct (probably not) and I doubt that there actually is a fixed group of few who has the world on its strings (a la X-Files). However, I think it’s possible to think that a few people with the “extreme” capitalistic goals can, for a while, try to direct the world toward a certain direction when they are compatible with each other.

In fact, the “pure” form of capitalism is closely related to the Darwinian theory of evolution: the survival of the fittest. In recent years, I’ve come to realize that a lot of what happens in the world is driven by our biological imperative for survival, as much as some of us would like to think of ourselves being more than just “animals”. A lot of our everyday decisions are to secure the survival of oneself or one’s group (e.g., families, neighbors, countrymen, etc.).

And since the distribution of power (i.e., the power to effect the world) isn’t even close to being even (and it will never be), some get to better the odds for themselves. (These include big investors who have power in this capitalistic economy, top government officials who have power to effect policies, top military/intelligence people who have power to inflict violence, terror and confusion, but as with everything else in the world, there are a lot of gradients to this scale.)

Also since this distribution of power is not guaranteed to stay the same, I think the collective group of power will consciously or subconsciously try to make it easier for them, which we already see as an example of ever increasing gaps in the economic “classes” (or disappearing middle-classes), which make it harder for “the others” (it is in a way related to this previous article) to cross over and danger their own survival. (On a related subject, I’ve started reading Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich.)

Anyway, it feels hypocritical to be critical of these extreme “survival”-oriented results because I definitely belong to the upper class (barely so, I should say) and have never experience the real hardships of “power”-less. That’s probably why I can easily “forget” about it and move along with “my” life. I really think that the survival imperative is something we can’t get rid of (without it, we will soon no longer exist). It’s just that we should try to inject compassions and decencies as much as we can into our lives (probably without dangering our survival as in the Asimov’s Rules of Robots). I don’t particularly think that we need to “maximize the profit” all the time… (But as in the concept of entropy, once the ball starts rolling toward degeneracies, it is really hard to turn them back.)

Also, this might be a shocker to some, but I am beginning to realize that the capitalism and the democracy fundamentally don’t mix well. I mean, what we have right now is something of a compromise between the two extremes. If you push the both concepts to their extremes, they cannot possibly co-exist. One is for maximizing (one’s) profit while the other is trying to make everyone happy. One will inevitably draw the power to a few while the other is trying to keep it evenly distributed among everyone. I don’t quite see how they can work together.

I think, because of the current dominating system of compromised ideologies led by the U.S. economy, a lot of people are confusing the two concepts as the same (or compatible). I think that seems to contribute even more to the confusions of the world.

Anyway… I have been, am and hopefully always will be a man of moderate ideas. I don’t like any extremes because distribution-wise there are a lot more people in the middle in terms of the idealism scales and it makes a lot of lives harder trying to force people to conform to the extremes. I just feel that the world seems to be heading toward extreme bipolar systems, which would eventually have to collapse to release the pressures built up. I am sure our race will “survive”, but… Is that just a part of life? Am I “worrying” too much needlessly?

Although I’ve always been interested in computer and video games, I am, by no means, what one might call an avid, hard-core gamer. But still, I’ve followed a handful of the fan websites and posted more than a few hundred posts so far on some of the message boards.

And recently, one of my friends introduced me to a web community with a seemingly popular online activity feature often known as “oekaki” (it literally means “picture drawing” in Japanese). It’s basically a drawing message board where one has to draw a picture on his/her computer using a simple painting tool and where others can make comments on it.

I’ve never thought of myself as being good at drawing. Actually, art was one of my most dreaded subjects when I was in school, and I remember I barely managed it. I did take drawing lessons when I was really young, but I didn’t continue for long.

Anyway, what surprised me was that I kind of liked it. As I have learned this year through a digital camera, this was one of the many ways that one can express oneself. Before that, my main outlet is through playing music or singing, which has been the main conduit ever since I was a kid. Then later during my high teen years, I’ve learned to manage with writing (I am still pretty bad at it, but much better than before). And this year I somehow manage to learn to recognize and internalize better what I’ve been looking at without much care.

This very crude way of drawing pictures online was a bit addictive, too, as was the digital photography. I am not even close to “good,” but am turned out to be good enough to express few things. Maybe, I am constantly looking for is to find a sufficient means to express myself…

Anyway, I thought about these recent “addiction”… It seems it came after the 9/11 incident. Although I don’t seem to get affected on the surface, it seems, subconsciously, I am in a listless, helpless mood. Actually, I stopped watching any of the news programs on TV after the second week after the incident. I stopped following it closely (I did initially, though), but it seems it is still bothering me at some level.

Or, it could be just a totally different thing… I need something better to do… Like finding a soul-mate (as my parents remind me often enough)… Anyway, it’s definitely true that I lack certain drives these days… Maybe, I am just in a down cycle…

Anyway, during an email exchange with my cousin Ilho in Korea, this is what I wrote to him back when he asked me what real American thought.

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:53:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Younghong Cho <*>
To: Ilho Park <*>
Subject: Re: ‘america under attack!?’

Well, merely after 24 hours after the first plane crash, it seems most of the American media almost decided that Osama bin Laden is the one. I don’t think the U.S. government hasn’t decided yet, but soon the public pressure to react will get to them.

There seem to have been some leads in Massachusetts (a car in the airport parking lot with Arabic flight manual and stuff) and in Florida (no idea). The U.S. is known for making quick decisions and swift actions, so we’ll see. Since there must have been quite a few people involved with these attacks (at least 3 on each plane, and several supporting crews), the investigators might eventually find some concrete leads.

Since where I work has more foreign workers than Americans, it’s tough to say what the most Americans’ reactions to this. From a recent poll, ~80% thinks it’s an act of war. ~10% said to retaliate now, ~80 said to find the perpetrators first. No matter what, Americans will use deadly force on who they think did this and the country they are in.

I wish there would be no more blood-shed and personally, I think this whole thing started when the Britain and the U.S. decided to push away those unknowing people living there and implanted Israel out of nowhere. In an ideal (movie-like) world, things should be resolved peacefully. But as one political commentator said on the radio, in the real politics, there will be retaliation.

The U.S.’s reaction to the terrorist attacks have been high-tech and remote (mostly missile attacks) so far. But this time, it might be different. The thing is, if this pursuit last long, it’s very likely that the U.S. public will get bored and anxious soon (unless there is another attack) as in the Vietnam War (well, the situation is a bit different this time).

Since a lot of people are making reference to Pearl Harbor, some seem to be even considering the possibility of a nuclear attack (I hope not).

I don’t think the air travel will ever be the same. As a result of this incident, we might see severe security restrictions even when boarding a domestic flight. Probably the immigration procedure would also get very strict.

Fortunately, no one that I knew was hurt. As you know Joy was in Manhattan (she’s going to Columbia), but she seems to be okay. It’s just that with all the tunnels in and out of the island closed, she couldn’t get out. One of my friends recently moved to Manhattan because of his work. He actually saw the whole thing on his way to work, but he was okay.

The thing is, all this was a possibility. It’s just that no one thought that anyone could/would actually do it. With the reaction and its demonstrated effectiveness, I am afraid that any other group can (and will eventually) use this again.

I don’t think the U.S. can back out from the whole Middle East conflicts in a realistic sense. The retaliatory attacks probably end up even more severe than the Gulf War. I doubt once the U.S. decides on the target, it would even care about the sovereignty of any other country. There will be more innocent blood shed…

Hong.

I’ve been to the American Red Cross blood donation center in the area yesterday and this is what I learned.

1. The donated blood lasts only 35 days unless it’s processed for other purposes.
2. The blood will be in short supply, at least, till the end of Christmas. So donate as often as you can (every 8 week).

Even if you don’t agree with the U.S.’s foreign policies, people from this tragedy need your help.