Professor Noam Chomsky Visits Prague












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            * Professor Noam Chomsky Visits Prague
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            I was confused when I left the Municipal Library in Prague at 12 o clock on Tuesday the 3r

            working all morning (well, sort of) to go and get lunch. Surely this crowd gathered outsid
            here for the lecture, which was to start in an hour and a half? They must be here for some
            I thought to myself. 45 minutes later and they were still there, their numbers in the mean

            doubled. In a somewhat surreal situation it seemed that people were queuing for almost two
            see a politician, a celebrity or a sports personality, but to see a scholar. And for good 
            seems, since within minutes of opening the doors the lecture theatre was filled to the bri

            staff having to stop eager punters from perching on the stairs and other inconvenient plac
            This picture illustrates better than any description I could give of the popularity of Pro

            Chomsky, linguist, philosopher and political activist. Described as one of the world’s mos
            academics, this small, softly-spoken and fierce man, even at 85, still knows how to draw i
            The debate in Prague Municipal Library was organized by the Faculty of Education of Charle

            cooperation with Palacký University in Olomouc, and was one of the talks given by the Prof
            visit to the Czech Republic.
            Jaroslav Fiala, of the Institute of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts at Charles Un

            the debate, drawing his questions from the recent Czech translation of Professor Chomsky’s
            Západu, Dissident of the West, a selection of Chomsky’s texts published by the CU’s publis
            Karolinum Press [ URL "http://cupress.cuni.cz/ink2_stat/index.jsp"] ).

            He began by asking about the professor’s background and how he became a political activist
            on to the 1960’s, and the atmosphere in the USA during the turbulent decade. The discussio
            his academic work, and to his thoughts on objective scholarship, and his version of the co

            The professor answered with his characteristic eloquence and passion – characteristics tha
            contribute to his enduring popularity as a speaker. He described how his experiences growi
            the great depression influenced his political beliefs and steered him towards anarchism, a

            the process of creating an anti-war movement in the USA during the Vietnam War, going from
            beginnings radicalizing living rooms to its far reaching impact on how the war in Iraq in 
            The second half of the debate was opened up to the floor, many questions being raised abou

            feelings towards the situation in Palestine and Israel. Professor Chomsky was unambiguous 
            condemnation of ‘illegal settlements’ and the ‘cowardice of Europe’ in the face of the USA
            upon to act on the international consensus to prevent further settlement extensions and to

            conflict in Israel and Palestine to an end.
            It was only the confinements of time that stopped the discussion from going on for longer,
            to be emptied for the next event, and it was grudgingly that the debate was drawn to a clo
                                                                                                      
            By: Elan Grug Muse is in her second year studying for a BA in Politics at the University o
            interested in international politics, music and literature, and was motivated to write for