Reference no: EM133609274

Question: One of the classic encounters in American political discourse is the discussion between William Buckley and Noam Chomsky on Buckley's TV program "The Firing Line" in 1969. Chomsky had recently published a book (American Power and the New Mandarins, 1969) asserting the basically imperialist character of American Foreign policy, and arguing that this was a bad thing for America and for the world. Buckley begs to differ. But in spite of the yawning gulf in their political views, Buckley and Chomsky did engage in some (sometimes) serious and, I think - occasionally - fruitful discussion of the issues. Watch a piece of this dialog/Interview between Buckley and Chomsky, which is posted on YouTube: Chomsky vs Buckley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt-GUAxmxdk&feature=related After watching enough of the encounter to get a feel for what is happening there (and to get used to Buckley's style), please analyze the encounter from the standpoint of critical thinking: (1) Which characteristics of the critical thinker do you find particularly manifested in this discussion? When, and by whom? In what ways? (2) Conversely: what violations (or non-manifestations) of the basic principles of critical thinking do you find in play here? When, by whom, and in what ways?