Product Description

Naom Chomsky, the 'Einstein of modern linguistics', is equally well-known as an uncompromising political dissident and social critic. His position is an unusual one, viewing the spread of a single global culture-achieved through the global flow of information products and images - as resulting in form of cultural, imperialism from which only the Western World can truly benefit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #603302 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

About the Author
Jeremy Fox used to be a language teacher at UEA in Norwich. He now writes about current affairs and the ways in which global capitalism uses the media to keep us well behaved.

Excerpted from Chomsky and Globalisation by Jeremy Fox. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Noam Chomsky is well placed to represent a left-wing view of globalisation and the new world order. He is well known, a prolific writer of books, articles and letters, and makes many speeches, so information about his views is easy to find. In his research work, he is known as the ‘Einstein of modern linguistics’, and almost universally admired by his colleagues for his contribution to their work. But as a commentator on political and social affairs, he arouses mixed feelings. Many socialists admire him warmly and would agree with much of what he says and writes. But some middle-of-the-road Americans find it hard to accept the unremitting severity of his attacks on American government policy, especially foreign policy. The irritation felt by some is expressed in this quotation from the prestigious New York Times:

'Arguably the most important intellectual alive, how can he write such nonsense about international affairs and foreign policy?'

Another, similar viewpoint is expressed by a reader of the Los Angeles Times who wrote in 1988 that:

'Noam Chomsky is a voice in the wilderness, but nobody listens.'

It is not particularly surprising if many in a society are patriotic and criticise those who attack government policy. After all, Darwin himself wrote on patriotism:

'There can be no doubt that a tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage and sympathy, were always ready to give aid to each other and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.'

From our point of view, however, the qualities that are most useful in a commentator on globalisation are more likely to include readability, expertise and common sense than unquestioning acceptance of US government policy.

For over 30 years, Chomsky has been denouncing US foreign policy, complaining noisily about the way the USA has treated so many Third World countries. To take a typical example, he lectured at the American University in Cairo in 1993 about the Cold War period, during which US operations included ‘the overthrow of the conservative parliamentary regime in Iran in 1953, restoring the Shah and his brutal rule; the destruction of Guatemala’s ten year democratic interlude’, which placed in power ‘a collection of mass murderers who would have won nods of approval from Himmler and Goering’, with atrocities reaching their highest level in the 1980s, ‘always with the backing or participation of the United States and its client states’; and ‘the establishment of a Latin-American style terror state in South Vietnam'.

Chomsky is not alone in such attacks on US foreign policy. For example, Garry Wills noted the American tendency to dethrone elected leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and substitute others that they have felt to be more suitable:

'Over time, American leadership substituted for that of Muhammad Mossadeq in Iran, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam, Rafael Trujillo in The Dominican Republic, Salvador Allende in Chile, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Maurice Bishop in Grenada, and Manuel Noriega in Panama.'

The idea of the US as a ‘bully’ was reflected in the leading article in a British newspaper in March 1999. Referring to a trade dispute with the European Community about Caribbean bananas, the Independent newspaper recommended resisting the retaliatory tariffs imposed by the US on cashmere pullovers and possibly Concorde landing rights, commenting:

'The behaviour of the United States is bullying, unconvincing, and illegal, and quite extraordinary for a nation which espouses the values of free trade and the rule of law.'

In actual fact, as Chomsky often makes clear, America does not believe in free trade for itself at all, but only for non-Western countries. Free trade is imposed on the poor countries by the leaders of the world, whose industries and commerce have long been amply protected.

On matters of foreign policy, Chomsky often refers to the high level of indoctrination in his country, which makes most people – particularly in the educated classes – accept the government line. The reason for this, he explains, is that the educated classes are subjected to a constant flow of propaganda. It is largely directed at them because they are more important, so they have to be more closely controlled. Furthermore, ‘the educated classes become the instruments of propaganda. Their function in the society is to promulgate and develop the ideological principles. As a result they inculcate them, if they don’t they’re usually weeded out and are no longer part of the privileged elite.'

So the level of indoctrination among the American intelligentsia may be part of the explanation of the gap between Chomsky’s views and more politically correct and conventional views of American foreign policy.

Customer Reviews

A concise guide to Chomsky's views on globalisation
Noam Chomsky is a highly respected socialist critic of American foreign policy. Here in this book we hear his views on on that "wonderful" all wealth creating Globalisation.
Globalisation according to Blair,Bush and just about any other Western politican claim it creates jobs, frees the Third World from its shackles of debt into a new world order of wonderful free trade.
Well Chomsky tells a different story that Globalisation is a fast track back to the dark ages for Third World countries and also for workers in the West. And that Transnational corporations are eroding freedom and democracy across the world.
In a nutshell Chomsky argues that Globalisation is Public relations speak for erosion of wages, working conditions, exporting of jobs;privatisation of just about every public service sold at knock down prices.
Globalisation is really all about making the rich richer and leaving the rest of us poorer.