Chomsky is absolutely a minarchist. He has stated that some structures of authority are admissible in non-ephemeral forms if they can be justified as necessary for the common good. But justified to whom? By what metrics? It’s just another way of saying, “only the small subset of hierarchies I agree with”.
"Authority, unless justified, is inherently illegitimate and that the burden of proof is on those in authority. If this burden can’t be met, the authority in question should be dismantled.”
I think that Chomsky thinks he is a “pragmatic” anarchist, which in his view means accepting certain hierarchies if people decide they’re “necessary”. If he were making pragmatic tradeoffs in the process of actually, actively organizing an anarchistic society, I’d say that is a necessary evil to be dealt with in time.
Barring that, I think it’s an unnecessary own-goal at best. Personally, I don’t know him, and have no reason to trust his good intentions in insisting that fellow anarchists accept, quite oxymoronically, certain anarchist hierarchies.
Chomsky is absolutely a minarchist. He has stated that some structures of authority are admissible in non-ephemeral forms if they can be justified as necessary for the common good. But justified to whom? By what metrics? It’s just another way of saying, “only the small subset of hierarchies I agree with”.
"Authority, unless justified, is inherently illegitimate and that the burden of proof is on those in authority. If this burden can’t be met, the authority in question should be dismantled.”
It sounds like you’re saying you don’t think Noam Chomsky is an anarchist. Is that correct?
I think that Chomsky thinks he is a “pragmatic” anarchist, which in his view means accepting certain hierarchies if people decide they’re “necessary”. If he were making pragmatic tradeoffs in the process of actually, actively organizing an anarchistic society, I’d say that is a necessary evil to be dealt with in time. Barring that, I think it’s an unnecessary own-goal at best. Personally, I don’t know him, and have no reason to trust his good intentions in insisting that fellow anarchists accept, quite oxymoronically, certain anarchist hierarchies.
So you think Chomsky thinks he is an anarchist. But you don’t think he’s an anarchist, is that right?
In essence, yes, I personally think he’s a minarchist.
I don’t hold anyone else to that, though; if you prefer to consider him an anarchist, feel free.
Also, is there a reason you keep rephrasing this question? I’m pretty sure my other comments already answer this.