Noam Chomsky, a founder of modern linguistics, spoke about the pandemic, labor rights and pressing political issues in a Thursday webinar co-hosted by Northwestern Political Union.
The event, arranged with political unions at Fordham University, the University of Chicago and Columbia University, drew about 600 attendees. Chomsky, one of the most cited scholars in modern history, identified a number of threats to society that he deemed existential: climate change, the increasing threat of nuclear war, pandemics and neoliberalism.
“There are urgent problems that cannot be overlooked,” Chomsky said. “Like it or not, your generation has to decide whether or not organized human society is going to persist.”