Leonard Gaya's Reviews > Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

Apart from his scientific work on linguistics (notably his groundbreaking generative grammar theory), Noam Chomsky has always been quite outspoken about his political views, ever since his criticism of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He also contributed quite substantially to media studies and the questioning of propaganda in America (see Manufacturing Consent). Today, albeit in his 90s, Chomsky is still quite combative and a towering — in fact, a rock-star-like — figure in left-libertarian and anarcho-syndicalist academic circles.

This book is a sort of fix-up (with abundant footnotes) of several talks Chomsky gave in the U.S. around the 1990s (during the Clinton/Bush administrations). Essentially, Chomsky provides answers to questions from his audience. And although most of these questions were dealing with current affairs at the time (now a bit outdated, obviously), the essence of Chomsky’s answers is still quite relevant some twenty-odd years later.

He covers everything from media manipulation by corporate interests to freedom of speech, religious fanaticism and terrorism, state capitalism vs. communal libertarianism, the military-industrial complex and the nuclear threat, the Middle-East conflict, the Gulf War, the situation in East-Timor, climate change, activism and resistance and the charlatanism of post-modern thinkers (worth watching in hindsight: his 1971 debate with Michel Foucault on human nature, at the height of the antagonism between “continental” and “analytic” philosophy).

In short, the whole thing is an analysis, from different angles, of the U.S. Totalitarian Empire State. It is indeed a fascinating book, although some of what Chomsky says sounds quite a bit like a conspiracy theory. It is also perplexing that he hasn’t been much intimidated by the oppressive system he has been denouncing for so many years. Quite indispensable nonetheless.