There’s some Noam Chomsky in the air here. After the presentation of the virtual immersion installation Chom5ky vs Chomsky at the NFB last fall, Quebec publishing house Lux is launching a translation of the book The Withdrawal featuring a series of interviews with America’s most famous radical leftist, now 95 years old.
His compatriot of Indian origin, Vijay Prashad, director of the Tricontinental Institute, leads the discussions. Chomsky describes himself as a libertarian socialist or an anarchist. Prashad presents himself rather as a fairly strict Marxist. The two come together in a fierce critique of capitalism, imperialism and colonialism old or new.
The exchanges between the two committed intellectuals relate to the wars waged by their country in Vietnam, the Near and Middle East, but also in passing in Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world. Each time, by crossing at full speed seven decades of American military interventions, with their millions of deaths counted, the analysis shreds the official versions (“spread democracy”, “repel totalitarianism”…) in favor of a central thesis that the United States is the greatest disruptive and predatory force of our time. Even communist countries, including the USSR, come out with a more positive image in this destabilizing demonstration.
“We rule the world,” Chomsky said ofimperium world. If some of our countless victims even ask for an investigation into our crimes, we tell them: “Sorry, the godfather is untouchable.” That sums up the situation well. »
Pithy formulas of this kind abound. Donald Trump is described as “humanity’s most dangerous criminal” since he has done nothing and still refuses to intervene to prevent the imminent environmental catastrophe that would threaten our very existence. George W. Bush is nicknamed “the weirdo”.
Prashad’s questions prove much less effective. He drags on unnecessarily and ends his presentations in a fishtail fashion. Chomsky, on the other hand, remains true to his reputation for clarity. He never jargons and cites a multiplicity of sources ranging from CIA reports to opinion pieces appearing in major newspapers. He obviously ends up bludgeoning the education system and the media which would only promote the ideology of the masters. Manufacturing consent…
This demonstration represents in total an effective and succinct concentrate of the Chomsky doctrine. His pedagogy is also confirmed by watching the documentary on Netflix Requiem for the American Dream, outlining his ten principles for organizing the concentration of wealth in contemporary capitalism. There really is a lot of Noam Chomsky in the air…