, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. He is Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is the author of more than 150
, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with
. He views these positions not as precise political theories but as ideals that he thinks best meet
of association. He envisions an anarcho-
of the means of production and
government by workers' councils, who would select temporary and revocable representatives to meet together at general assemblies.
Chomsky supported the ideas of
Rudolf Rocker, a contributor whose work introduced Chomsky to the link between
anarchism and classical liberalism. Chomsky also read other political thinkers: the anarchists
Mikhail Bakunin and Diego Abad de Santillán, democratic socialists
George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, and Dwight Macdonald, and works by Marxists Karl Liebknecht, Karl Korsch, and Rosa Luxemburg. His readings convinced him of the desirability of an anarcho-
syndicalist society, and he became fascinated by the anarcho-
syndicalist communes set up during the Spanish Civil
War, as documented in Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.