if i were asked to choose one of noam chomsky's major contributions to the world, it would be the fact that he has unmasked the ugly, manipulative, ruthless universe that exists behind that beautiful, sunny word "freedom". he has done this rationally and empirically. the mass of evidence he has marshalled to construct his case is formidable. terrifying, actually. the starting premise of chomsky's method is not ideological, but it is intensely political. he embarks on his course of inquiry with an anarchist's instinctive mistrust of power. he takes us on a tour through the bog of the u.s. establishment, and leads us through the dizzying maze of corridors that connects the government, big business, and the business of managing public opinion.
chomsky shows us how phrases like "free speech", the "free market", and the "free world" have little, if anything, to do with freedom. he shows us that, among the myriad freedoms claimed by the u.s. government are the freedom to murder, annihilate, and dominate other people. the freedom to finance and sponsor despots and dictators across the world. the freedom to train, arm, and shelter terrorists. the freedom to topple democratically elected governments. the freedom to amass and use weapons of mass destruction—chemical, biological, and nuclear. the freedom to go to war against any country whose government it disagrees with. and, most terrible of all, the freedom to commit these crimes against humanity in the name of "justice", in the name of "righteousness", in the name of "freedom"...// arundhati roy, information clearinghouse
No comments:
Post a Comment