“In any country, there’s some group that has the real power. It’s not a big secret where power is in the United States. It basically lies in the hands of the people who determine investment decisions – what’s produced, what’s distributed. They staff the government , by and large, choose the planners, and set the general conditions of the doctrinal system.
One of the things they want is a passive, quiescent population. So one of the things that you can do to make life uncomfortable for them is not be passive and quiescent. There are lot of ways of doing that. even just asking questions can have an important effect.”
Why I Picked This Book?
The title of the book generates a curiosity and when it has interviews and speeches by Noam Chomsky, all the more reason to read what it says. When one of the world’s greatest public intellectual says/write something, you should at the least listen/read. Moreover a casual browsing through the book gave me an insight of the subject it covered and I decided to go for it.
The Book
How the world works is a collection of speeches and interviews covering a wide ranging subjects like US foreign policy over the years or as some very rightly put it as dissection of US foreign policy.
The book covers a wide variety of subjects to give the readers an understanding of how things work in democracies. Who actually runs and rules the democracy. How international organisation works and how the international laws and rules applies to the small and third word countries, while the same rules are flouted by the powerful nations.
How the World Works – is structured into four sections:
–What Uncle Sam Really Wants – a critique of US foreign policy, where Chomsky dissects various policy decisions of the US. It talks about what are the main goals of the foreign policy and how it has been and is still achieved by forcing wars sanctions on the various nations of the world.
–The Prosperous Few and The Restless Many – It talks about the new global economy, and its effect on the world. Essays on Ghandi and non violence, rascism and many more.
– Secret, Lies and Democracy – essays and talks on the defective democracy and keeping the rich on welfare by making the poor pay for it. The inequality as it exists, and how consumption is being peddled as well being.
– The Common Good – Here we have essays and talks on equality, freedom, globalization, what is the meaning of being left, is there any left or right as we often hear and many more.
The book provides an insight about the geopolitics with strong arguments and clarity of thought.
About the Author
Noam Chomsky is the bestselling author of over 100 influential political books, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, Interventions, What We Say Goes, Hopes and Prospects, Making the Future, On Anarchism, Masters of Mankind and Who Rules the World. He has also been the subject of numerous books of biography and interviews and has collaborated with journalists on books such as Perilous Power, Gaza in Crisis, and On Palestine.
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Laureate Professor of Linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.
Our Verdict
A must read for everyone who has interest and wants to know more about the state of the world affairs.
To get your own copy click on the link below.