The Buckley-Chomsky Debate

On April 3, 1969, Noam Chomsky joined William F. Buckley on Buckley’s influential debate show Firing Line. Chomsky was an emerging public intellectual and political progressive. Buckley was an established public intellectual for the new conservative movement. The night’s topic: Chomsky’s book American Power and the New Mandarins, and the anti-imperial critiques it leveled against the US and Vietnam War. You can watch the debate here.

As you watch the Buckley-Chomsky debate, remember this comment by Edward Said: “A knowledge of history, a recognition of the importance of social circumstances, an analytical capacity for making distinctions: these trouble the quasi-religious authority of being comfortably at home among one’s people, supported by known powers and acceptable values, protected against the outside world.” Let Said’s insights inform how you interpret Buckley’s and Chomsky’s arguments, methods, and mannerisms.

And when you’re done, consider why Buckley and Chomsky never debated again. There’s much to learn from this one-off exchange.

Saludos y’all.