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Robb Seaton's Reviews > Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
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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 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*.
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*.
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Reading Progress
March 19, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
March 19, 2014
– Shelved
April 4, 2014
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Started Reading
April 4, 2014
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Finished Reading
April 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
past-is-another-country
April 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
philosophy
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Shrijith
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 24, 2014 01:49AM
So an unnecessary animal and authority are the same kind of things?
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i mean who recommends watching a movie over reading a book, and thinks he/she is serious about issues. Chomsky certainly got the education part dead right.
when i was struggling to finish his drivel on real and imagined villains,all i was thinking was the mistake I made not heeding to this review.it is spot on
"Economists, he says, are brainwashed, so why listen to them? Very convenient."... Are we reading the same book? There is a wide range of economic thought (heck, the number of times Chomsky cites Adam Smith...), Chomsky just points out that the neoliberal school has been well-funded in the US, which makes sense as US moves from industrial production towards financialization. As for why dismantle authority when it is not necessary, what exactly are you concerned about?
