Power Systems
Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A compelling new set of interviews on our changing and turbulent times with Noam Chomsky, one of the world's foremost thinkers
In this new collection of conversations, conducted from 2010 to 2012, Noam Chomsky explores the most immediate and urgent concerns: the future of democracy in the Arab world, the implications of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the European financial crisis, the breakdown of American mainstream political institutions, and the rise of the Occupy movement. As always, Chomsky presents his ideas vividly and accessibly, with uncompromising principle and clarifying insight.
The latest volume from a long-established, trusted partnership, Power Systems shows once again that no interlocutor engages with Chomsky more effectively than David Barsamian. These interviews will inspire a new generation of readers, as well as longtime Chomsky fans eager for his latest thinking on the many crises we now confront, both at home and abroad. They confirm that Chomsky is an unparalleled resource for anyone seeking to understand our world today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For decades, famed MIT linguist and political critic Chomsky has provided a sober perspective on U.S. policy. In this set of interviews (from 2010 to 2012) with journalist Barsamian (director of Alternative Radio), Chomsky (Hegemony or Survival) cuts through bipartisan centrism while exploring such urgent concerns as the power shift from sovereign nations to multinational corporate entities, "from the global workforce to the owners of the world: transnational capital, global financial institutions." Analyzing America's strategic interests in Afghanistan, he points to the long-planned Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, intended to carry natural gas to India, as well as historical precedents like the 1915 invasion of Haiti. Elsewhere, he addresses both changes in Western activism and the West's "eroding" system of Middle Eastern dictatorships. The abuses of power discussed can be painful to absorb, yet for those who believe that in the discovery of truth lies hope, Chomsky proves an excellent guide. The penultimate interview, a rare intersection of Chomsky's linguistic and political work, ties the proliferation of national dogmas to our inborn ability to learn language. If every literate person in the U.S. and Europe were to pick up Chomsky's latest, it's not outlandish to imagine a tidal shift in modern conceptions of global power and freedom.
