I don´t get it but I admire your ideas

Noam Chomsky, the old contrarian linguist and philosopher whose main ideas are about attacking every dimension of the US foreign policy – Chomsky is a US citizen, by the way -, is an idol of every self-respecting leftist intellectual in some parts of Europe. A few days ago he came to Lisbon to deliver a conference about the role of social sciences in today´s world. The auditorium was packed and some people had to follow the talk from an adjacent amphitheatre. The applause at the end of Chomsky´s long presentation was intense. Then, media people talked to the attendees, to get their impressions about the ideas they just heard. Many just confessed they had not understood Chomsky´s arguments. But they were amazed by the philosopher´s depth, knowledge and courage.

And I thought of that movie where the comedian Roberto Benigni said they were famous just because they were famous. No other reason was needed, no other explanation could be found. In this case, Chomsky for the Portuguese leftists is just great because they don´t understand what he is saying but he is against the establishment. That´s a reason good enough.