Noam Chomsky, �Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews�
Okay, so the site that I started this entire project on had vanished. Poof. Puff of smoke. Two and a half years erased into the ether.
I can�t complain — I publicly announced that I was leaving the site eventually, but since I have two and a half years of reviews to put up here, I thought I had a while. So slowly, I�ve been putting older reviews on this site, and continued to put the new reviews on the older one.
Now that site is gone, and I have 16 books that still need reviewing.
So here�s the deal. I�m going to be putting both old and new reviews up. I can only hope the archive system that we set up works well enough to keep this from being confusing. In the meantime, if you signed up for the e-mail notification list, I will only send out notification when a NEW review goes up. Check the Archive list in case you think you missed something.
And eventually, this will all be finished. Or I�ll be dead. Either way, you win!
The easiest way to describe this book is to call it a 158 page, �I told you so.� Of course, it�s more than that, as the interviewers try to get Chomsky�s view on what will happen now.
To which Chomsky, in his own inimitable, long, drawn-out way, says, �I don�t know what will happen. But I did tell you so.�
The funny thing is that in this book, one of his question-and-answer sections reprinted in this collection came from the lecture that I personally witnessed in Berkeley. It was much more interesting in print than in person.
That says a lot, when a transcript of an interview is more engaging than the actual event. I mean, hell, Chomsky teaches at MIT. I�m betting he could sign up pretty easily on a course for public speaking.
So the points of Chomsky essentially go like this:
- The U.S has acted like dicks.
- Other countries resent this.
- The U.S. gets away with it, because they�re big and tough and have a lot of friends.
- Eventually, like David and Goliath, some small country or nation gets sick of the lip from the U.S., and will pop them in the mouth if they don�t watch it.
Sounds like a normal night at the Caravan to me. And America has followed in the bar mentality mode. Now that this little upstart popped us in full view of everybody, we�ve gathered our friends and gone after them.
As if that�ll show them.
Spending as much time involved in bar-politics, both as an observer and as a participant, I know how these things run. It escalates. And as we�ve already shown that we�re not as tough as we put up our front for, expect us to get popped again in the mouth sometime soon.
Though I�ll take no pleasure in saying I told you so when it happens.
