Look, you don't need to read this book. Here's how Chomsky works:
1. Identify an authority. 2. Is it necessary? If not, dismantle it.
How do you identifyLook, you don't need to read this book. Here's how Chomsky works:
1. Identify an authority. 2. Is it necessary? If not, dismantle it.
How do you identify an authority? Watch when someone gets fired, put in prison, forced to resign, etc. What aren't you allowed to say or do? What happens when you push something too far?
Now, I'm partial to this algorithm, but it's not at all obvious that it's a good idea, for all the same reasons that it's not obvious that it's a good idea to eradicate an unnecessary animal.
Plus, the book is decidedly useless when it comes to, you know, understanding power. "Because they're evil" is not analysis, and I wasn't at all impressed with Chomsky's scholarship, unlike many other reviewers. Chomsky draws almost no connections between his own narrative and work in other disciplines. Economists, he says, are brainwashed, so why listen to them? Very convenient.
If you're on the left and want to listen to someone agree with you, sure, then read this. Or if you're interested in the history of activism, read it -- that's essentially what Chomsky is, a historian specializing in activism. Otherwise, I'd recommend just watching the movie *Manufacturing Consent*. ...more
I'm confused as to the purpose of this book. It starts with data -- formal models consistently outperform human judgment -- and then spends the rest oI'm confused as to the purpose of this book. It starts with data -- formal models consistently outperform human judgment -- and then spends the rest of the book deconstructing what separates terrible human judgment from bad human judgment. Shouldn't we be talking about, you know, model building? ...more
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