Product Description

In this all-new collection of conversations, Noam Chomsky explores immediate and urgent international concerns including Iran's challenge to the United States, the deterioration of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the rise of China, and the growing power of the left in Latin America, as well as the Democratic victory in the US midterm elections and its ramifications for the future. As always, Chomsky presents his own ideas vividly and accessibly, with uncompromising principles and valuable insights. These interviews will inspire a new generation of readers, as well as long-term Chomsky fans eager for his latest thinking on the many crises the world now confronts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39707 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet (New York Times Book Review )

About the Author
Noam Chomsky has been named the world’s number one public intellectual in a poll by Prospect magazine. He is the author of numerous bestselling political works, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions and Failed States, all of which are published by Hamish Hamilton and Penguin. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, and is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT.

Customer Reviews

As well-informed as ever
Chomsky consistently finds documents and articles that the rest of us have missed. Like all his books, this is full of fascinating revelations.

His title comes from a speech by George Bush senior in 1991, when he said that the main principle of his new world order was, `what we say goes'. In eight interviews conducted in 2006 and 2007, Chomsky and radio journalist David Barsamian cover matters including the US state, the Middle East, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the rise of democracy in Latin America.

Chomsky cites a Pentagon document that recommended an information strategy including: "Diversion: list of interesting declassified material - i.e. Kennedy assassination data", for `providing good faith distraction material'. He suggests that conspiracy theories are there to distract people from real struggles.

In January 2007, Chomsky said, "there is a housing bubble that somehow overcame the collapse of the stock bubble. If the housing bubble bursts, it could turn out to be very serious."

He shows how the US state has fostered Islamic fundamentalism by supporting Saudi Arabia, `the most extreme fundamentalist tyranny in the world' - and also the US state's oldest ally in the Middle East.

He shows the continuity of imperial rule over Latin America. In 1907, the British empire's rulers instigated a massacre of a thousand workers in Iquique, Chile. He points out, "Right through the Clinton years, Colombia was by far the leading recipient of U.S. aid, and also had by far the worst human rights record in Latin America."

He shows how the biggest divide in the USA is not between North and South, or black and white, but between the capitalist state and the American people. In every opinion poll, a majority of Americans favour a national health service, more spending on education and welfare, and less spending on war. On Iran, 75% of the American people think that the USA should end military threats and turn to diplomacy. Two-thirds of the American people want to re-establish ties with Cuba.

Chomsky says that the national interest is `a mystical term', but although the capitalist class and its state naturally claim that their minority interests are the national interest, the real national interest is always a nation's people.

Essential Reading
What can I say but this is essential reading. I am not political, but you do not need to be political to read and understand and appreciate this. It is essential if you want to understand how the world really works, If you want to understand the difference between facts and spin.

And this is a good introduction to his work for people who have not read him before as it is divided up into bite size chunks and it is up to date. To say it will change your life is a cliche and perhaps an overstatement.
But it will certainly open your eyes to the world we live in and how we treat other countries in it.

I can't recommend it enough.