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Andre Shumpert's avatar

Makes sense to me Mr. Chomsky. Thank you for sharing.

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John's avatar

The relationship between parent and child is necessarily hierarchical (in a very limited sense) in that parents will and should should use force to compell children to do or not to do certain things. If the child REALLY wants to do dangerous things like run into the road the parent will use force to prevent it.

The relationship need not be hierarchical in the common sense of the term but I believe this is what Chomsky was saying. Using force to compell others to do or not to do things is sometimes justified. In the moment the parent restrains the child the parent is placing themselves in a position where the judgement of the parent supercedes rhe autonomy of child. Once you grant that the parent is right to do so, it follows that the parent is always in a position to do so (at least until the child reaches maturity). While the specifics of when the authority may be justly exercised may wildly vary, at all times the parent posseses the authority to overide the autonomy of the child. This is a hierarchical relationship.

I do find Chomskys metric to be fatally flawed though. The problem with saying that hierarchy is acceptable if it can be justified is that inevitably what is considered a proper justification will be determined by the powerful. It's not a coincidence that philosophy departments are stocked with people who use their immense intellect to rationalize the status quo. The way he describes a just society is inexorably tied to an oppressive meliue. This is a common problem with philosophers in general and acedemics in particular.

A just society will not be one that demands justifications for hierarchy, for violence or anything of that sort. A just society will be one for which such actions are themselves unthinkable. To use an extreme example, when society has discussions about what level of force is unacceptable to coerse sex (everything marital rape being criminalized to the legal status of prostitution) it has already failed, regardless of the outcome of the discussion. In a just society, there would be no discussion. Coersion would be unthinkable.

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