Noam Chomsky and the Anarchist Tradition

Abstract

The relationship of Noam Chomsky to the anarchist tradition is a matter of some controversy. On one end of the spectrum are those—usually self-identified anarchists—who maintain that Chomsky is not an anarchist at all. The corollary of this claim is generally that Chomsky is something else masquerading as an anarchist—a Marxist, perhaps, or a liberal (Woodcock, 1974; Zerzan, 2002). On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who believe that Chomsky ranks among the elite members of the anarchist canon, as exemplified by Carlos Otero’s contention that ‘Chomsky’s anarchism … appears to be the most developed conception of anarchism to date, and the deepest and best founded intellectually speaking’ (Otero, 2003: 29). If the former assessment is coloured by a certain amount of resentment that Chomsky, the mild-mannered and pragmatic intellectual, has become the de facto standard-bearer for a tradition that prides itself on fire-breathing radicalism, the latter has surely been embellished by the adulatory tone struck all too frequently by Chomsky’s admirers.

‘I’m some kind of anarchist’

—Noam Chomsky

The author would like to thank Alison Edgley, Vivian Kao, and Blair Taylor.