Love Norman’s honesty and humor while recalling his past. Appreciate the fact he never stopped learning from his mistakes until he transformed himself into the courageous fighter for truth and justice. Best wishes and respect.
With Norman it is not just " I have read all the books" (which is rare), but he admits to error (which is far, far rarer) . I have enormous respect for the man.
Norman has reached his pinnacle. Great scholar! I was lucky to be his student. Back then he was 48...I can not believe that that was almost 22 years ago.
Kathie Bishop Exactly. I also love his amusing anecdotes of his parents. They were clearly a huge influence on him, especially his mother, and you can see the love there.
What a fantastic interview. There is often a tension between being firmly committed to a cause and being a dogmatist. A lesson to us all to avoid mistaking theories and intellectual frameworks for the reality they are supposed to represent.
Its really rare when you find someone who owns what he did/think was wrong. especially if it can be used against them. I honestly respect him even more now ...
Thanks TRNN! You listen to NF laugh at himself in the story of his development and then laugh at his detractors who like to say he's "self-hating" or "disturbed"---in fact he's the most poised debater and dedicated-to-the-documents scholar on the world scene since Chomsky. Even when he's breathing fire it's always about bringing clarity to the facts, issue and options.
Great interview style and depth. When we treat each human being with respect it humanizes them. Not that I ever demonized Finkelstien. Such an interview would never be undertaken by the corporate owned. It's not their job.
This is a great video. I have only heard Finkelstein talk about his Maoist past in passing and it was great to hear the full story, looking forward to the rest of the series.
This person is an individual with great human values always trying to help humans do the right thing, simply stated Dr. Norman Finenkinten . great person.
F*ck, Finkelstein, who is so sharp and focused, reveals his past in such a funny and hillarious way. He was so fanatic, ridiculous, nerdy, but at the same time truthseeking, sincere and hardworking, I think even then people couldn't neglect him. I kind of stumbled over this interview and it's hillarious, I like and respect F. even more. And no false humbleness here, qvote : " I'm not for sale" 👍 That's what I thought! And funny + + fearless ✌
He has a lovely ability at brutal self-reflection. Most folks have such huge egos they couldn't salvage the good from such a personal disater. He is clearly not a Maoist but a Buddhist ...
Basically his parents exemplified the Austrian painters problem with them, stereotypical “ungrateful, anti-Western (where they opted to live nonetheless) Marxists”, it’s unfortunate
***** I only watch RT for Crosstalk, but honestly, be careful. They can be really good when it comes to giving information and opinions that aren't commonly discussed, but it can also quickly devolve into an anti-NATO circle jerk, where they protray Russia as the flawless victim standing against the machinations of the West.
***** Al Jazeera has their flaws too. Most of the time, they focus most of their investigations for the problems that goes on in the world, without even any mention of the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia for the most part. Every news organization always have some sort of an agenda. Your job as a viewer is to cherry pick out of which you think is relevant news for you.
I am a first generation french woman desperately trying to find alternative oriented publications, being a staunchly independant journalist. My paternal grand parents were ukrainien and roumanian who fled as kifs
At 11:50, Finkelstein says that some people committed suicide when they found out in the 1950's about the abuses under Stalin. I'm curious what individuals he might mean in history.
I don't get it. How could Kruschev' speech (or even the case of gang of four) make so much damage tho? I understand that both those events lead to tectonic shifts domestically, but what it has to do with your ideological beliefs, let alone with ideological beliefs of the people from another side of atlantic? Even back then there were people who saw it for what it really was and very few people had respect for ukrainian village fool that Kruschev was. What his rants have to do with marxsist self-esteem as a political and/or economical activists from all around the world?
being maoist means that you support the destruction of cultural and religious sites. what kind of humanist are you? how can you fight for peace and freedom when you cannot allow people to be free to choose whether they want to believe in something or not? now chinas party has regretted this due to immense losses. do you really still believe this? i don't have anything against atheism but extreme secularism is not the answer. tolerance is. theosophy and secular philosophies should remain in discussion; discussion that will allow people to choose what they want to believe and not get persecuted for it. i think statists need to change their definition of secularism back to its true definition of the word if what they want to convey is tolerance of belief. change the name. it could solve a lot of problems.
d3v1lsw0rstn1ghtm4r3 Secularism as I understand it is a rejection of sectarianism. The notion of destroying religious sites, books and so forth in the name of secularism is as contradictory and abhorent to me as killing in the name of Jesus. Truly secular institutions in my mind are those that equal in their treatment of people regardless of their religious affilliation. That said words are used by the rich and powerful to mean whatever they want them to mean, like 'socialism' under Stalin/Lenin or 'democracy' in the US. So it is wise IMHO not to get hung up on words but to pay attention to actions. I doubt NF would have called himself a Maoist if he believed it meant the persecution of the religious. To him it clearly meant other things as was hinted at in the interview when he contrasts his Maoist days with his views subsequently.
***** yes i'm with you in that true sense of the idea. we need a new word if it gets twisted around by both camps. unfortunately since the word gets thrown around so easily i had to go by the book definition. but as we all know, language is a dynamic thing and meanings of words can change in which new words can arise from. we need a better word. got any ideas? ;) as far as nf, he was talking about the phases in his life and he mentioned his admiration for mao and following marx. i didn't watch the whole thing when i commented and simply reacted. silly me. but i answered myself basically. does that mean im schizophrenic? ;)
It is very ironic that finkelstien is praised as having sterling intellectual honesty. In another interview he says that public opinion should in fact form public policy. Not facts but public opinion. I dont see how this can form any basis for a sterling intellectual basis.
Pierre Stafleu Generally speaking one can say that public opinion is formed by oxygen. If you have enough people, you form a public, in which an opinion is formed. People need oxygen hence by extension public opinion is formed. Do you see how idiotic that statement is? So basically I'm supposed to believe two things only. That oxygen exists and public exists. Those two things together and you have a public opinion.
Pierre Stafleu Ok, since youre too thick skulled to understand I'll have to speak to you like youre a grown child person. Fuck public opinion government policy should be shaped by facts and decisions should be made based on facts.
ThunderAppeal It's too funny when people like you are immediately ready to jump to the conclusion that someone is stupid. Especially when the reason for it is that I wasn't able to understand your English. I see it all the time- so many lost souls with a chip on the shoulder and something to prove. "fuck public opinion" hey? so if you're getting fucked over everyday, by..oh let's say the banking system, you don't want to have a say in it's reformation? I do understand why one would cringe at the idea of public opinion when there is such a lack in dispersal of important facts, but the founding fathers had an important segment of this little document called the constitution in which they talk about how the Republic they were developing was to be representative of a public opinion which was to be augmented regularly with factual and objective information. The idea actually goes back to the Classical Greek form of democracy where they also realized that an ill-informed public makes for a broken democracy. So, in conclusion, public policy should be formed in concert with public opinion while in review of the factual circumstance of the issue at hand. But i guess what you're trying to say is that you want to be ruled by a closed oligarchy where workers have no voice?
@@simonetartocchi6968 He said "he didn't even". You're not really implying that a man like Finkelstein woudn't know or even worse doubt Stalin's role in the Trotsky assassination now, do you?
@@lethalchocobo1886 I easily could. By a person who's family supported USSR all the way, hated Israel and zionism and was fond of Mao, the genocidal maniac... what couldn't one actually expect?!!
I want to hear about the story of palestinian who were granted Gaza in 2005, and how they managed to keep it a flourishing city as it was during Israel's authority! Tell us about how they destroyed everything! Tell us how they've turned it into a missile launching platform! TALK ABOUT PALESTINIAN TERRORISM TOO!
