“… Noam Chomsky is one of the most hysterically abused figures in the world today.
Even his critics have to concede that his work in the field of linguistics – beginning to decode the structure of how language is formed in the human brain –
- makes him one of the most important intellectuals alive.
But when he applies the same rigorous method to figuring out how power – especially the American government’s – works, he is pepper-sprayed with smears.
He is a self-hating Holocaust denier, a jihad-loving traitor, a Pol Pot-licking communist, and on and on.
If all you know of his work is the smears, then Hopes and Prospects will be a revelation.
In his dry, understated way, he excavates the reality behind the Babel of 24/7 corporate news … and places long-buried truths on the table to examine.
Every one is sourced to the leading academic journals, the best experts, the sharpest medical advice –
- yet each one is a shock if you rely on news brought to you by corporations … and corrupt right-wing billionaires.
For example, he uncovers the story of why Haiti is so poor, and could be shaken to pieces by an earthquake that would have killed only a handful in California.
It’s a story of man-made earthquakes, one after another.
The country was the first to rebel against slavery and to cast off the whip-hand – and was brutally punished by the French Empire.
Every time it has begun to rise to its feet, it has been kicked back down … with the American Empire taking over to topple its elected leaders …
… (the last was put on a plane at gunpoint in 2008) …
… and stifle any moves towards development.
But who has heard about it?
Who tries to hold our leaders accountable for it?
Chomsky is trying to rescue crimes from the memory-hole.
He explains that Ronald Reagan – the great hero of the US right – was a great champion of jihadism.
It was Reagan who encouraged Pakistan simultaneously to become fundamentalist … and acquire nuclear weapons.
Chomsky coolly condemns “the global jihad launched by Zia and Reagan,” for geopolitical reasons …
… with no concern for the after-effects.
But Reagan remains unstained.
Chomsky quotes the great American historian Francis Jennings, who noted that…
… “In history, the man in the ruffled shirt and gold-coated waistcoat levitates above the blood he has ordered to be spilled by dirty-handed underlings.”
Instead, Chomsky says, history is too often ruled by Thucydides’s maxim: …
…”The strong do as they wish … while the poor suffer as they must.”
It doesn’t have to be this way…”
go to source/story>>>Â Hopes and Prospects, By Noam Chomsky : ICH – Information Clearing House
