I have recently looked for some of Noam Chomsky's work. I was interested in seeing him in a televised debate, listening to him making live comments, and on reading his published material. Is he a Marxist? Does he embrace only subjects fashionable amongst the pro-left intellectuals? Most interestingly (for me), how skillful is Noam Chomsky in polite political debating? Here is what I found:
- http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bovall&p=r The Chomsky - Perle debate at Ohio University, 1988 -- on YouTube, 19 parts. In short: Noam demolishes a debile opposition.
- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=676452061991429040&q=chomsky&total=2117&start=0&num=100&so=0&type=search&plindex=2Noam Chomsky speaks to BBC's Francine Stock at London's St Paul's Cathedral, Dec '02 -- reviews a few of his most important standings.
- A large archive of taped interviews, http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo.htm
- ChomskyTorrents.org [now http://onebigtorrent.org/index.php?cat=13 ]
- Chomsky at Google Video [ http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=chomsky ]
- Chomsky at YouTube [ http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chomsky ]
- Some of Noam's short writing [ http://www.chomsky.info/debates.htm ]
- Noam Chomsky books (and exerpts) [ http://www.chomsky.info/books.htm ]
- Some more books, including Year 501 [ http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/year/ ], What Uncle Sam Really Wants [ http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sam/ ] from U Penn's online book library [ http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=lcsubc&key=United%20States%20%2d%2d%20Foreign%20relations%20%2d%2d%201945%2d1989 -- filed under United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989 ]
- What Shall the Responsible Intellectual Do? With George Steiner. March 23, 1967.
Below I list some famous lectures/debates/published material. Consider it comparison material.
- A Nobel Prize Lecture -- Nobel Prize for Literature (Harold Pinter, 2005) [ high-res: rtsp://rs.nobelprize.org/lectures/2005/lit/pinter/pinter-lecture-hi.rm?title="Nobel Lecture by Harold Pinter"&author="© Illuminations 2005"©right="© Illuminations 2005" (video) and http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html (text) from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html ]
- Some great debates from the International Debate Education Association [ http://www.idebate.org/encyclomedia/category.php?id=4 ], including the Kennedy "Moon Landing" speech, JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."... [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45qCvLkXsM ], the Churchill "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" speech, the Martin Luther King "I have a Dream" speech [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk ], the Malcolm X speech at Oxford U., debate between Sam Harris and Reza Aslan, the Clinton vs. Bush '92 presidential debate, Chomsky vs. Buckley debate, etc.
- Google Video -- famous speeches [ http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=famous+speeches ]
Ok, that'll be it for now... One more thing: yes, Chomsky had good mastery of the debate skills. In particular, he could switch from a compassionate tone (to describe his standings) to a high-brow intellectual's and oftentimes sharp one (to respond to the opponent).