Imperial ambitions
our foremost intellectual activist examines crucial new questions of U.S. foreign policy Timely, urgent, and powerfully elucidating, this important volume of previously unpublished interviews conducted by award-winning radio journalist David Barsamian features Noam Chomsky discussing America's policies in an increasingly unstable world. With his famous insight, lucidity, and redoubtable grasp of history, Chomsky offers his views on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the doctrine of "preemptive" strikes against so-called rogue states, and the prospects of the second Bush administration, warning of the growing threat to international peace posed by the U.S. drive for domination. In his inimitable style, Chomsky also dissects the propaganda system that fabricates a mythic past and airbrushes inconvenient facts out of history. Barsamian, recipient of the ACLU's Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, has conducted more interviews and radio broadcasts with Chomsky than has any other journalist. Enriched by their unique rapport, Imperial Ambitions explores topics Chomsky has never before discussed, among them the 2004 presidential campaign and election, the future of Social Security, and the increasing threat, including devastating weather patterns, of global warming. The result is an illuminating dialogue with one of the leading thinkers of our time--and a startling picture of the turbulent times in which we live.
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What Hacker News says
- To anyone curious about exploring this angle more, I recommend Noam Chomsky’s book “Imperial Ambitions.” It’s a collection of interview transcripts where he discusses the US wars in the Middle East and the political and economic motivations behind them. It’s very informative.
But of course, American leadership will never break the facade of doing “good.” The propaganda is too effective. It’s way easier to maintain false narratives that keep the population looking the other way than to come out and say why you really want to invade other countries.
- Hmmm. Great question. What was the most "mind bending" moment in cinema? The ending to The Sixth Sense or the trial and conviction of Harvey Weinstein? When I think of mind bending I think of the thoughts and ideas that break one out of a previous believed framework of thinking. Things that have a lasting impact on how they see and view the world.
"The Bible" (New International Version)
“Capitalism and Freedom” by Milton Friedman
“Imperial Ambitions” by Noam Chomsky
“Evolution and Religion: A Dialogue Book" by Michael Ruse
“The Value of Free Thought” an essay by Bertrand Russel
“The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism” by Daniel Bell
“Stalking the billion-footed beast” an essay by Tom Wolfe
“Propaganda” by Edward Bernays
“Bonfire of the Vanities” by Tom Wolfe
“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau
“30 Satires” by Lewis H. Lapham
“Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut
Above, in chronological order, are the books that changed my life. It is weird looking at that list, as each book is tied to such a fundamental shift in my life. They each taught me about something fundamentally new and different. Faith, spirituality, economics, thought, power, society, nature, technology. It should appear obvious by looking at the list, there are plenty of opposite pairs, dipole books if you will, present. Bending one’s mind has multiple phases, first when one goes from knowing nothing to knowing something. Depending on what was learned, this can definitely be mind bending. But not everyone rides the second phase, going from knowing something to learning that it wasn’t the whole thing, or wasn’t the only way to interpret such a thing, or wasn’t entirely correct, or perhaps, in our largely subjective world, is not true at all.
Certain books can only speak to certain people at certain times of their life. It’s just the beauty of the whole thing. And to the core of this thread, one actually has to believe something, truly and passionately, in order for them to then have their world view bent and turned on its head. This is the hardest lesson that many won’t really ever opt to face. The core of truth, learning, and wisdom comes when you finally read (and thus think) something that takes a belief you previously held as passionately true, unalterably true, core-to-identity true, and made you wrestle with the reality that it may, perhaps, not be. That’s the biggest mind f* of them all.
One’s entire worldview is constructed of things they believe. But those things you believe come, for some more than others, from what one read, purposefully or not. Seek books that challenge what you believe and enjoy the ride.
- I stumbled across Chomsky’s “Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9/11 World” at my local library on the east coast while I was a senior in high school. When checking out the librarian seemed confused, “interesting,” she said “this book doesn’t appear to be in our system. It’s your lucky day. You just got yourself a free book!”
That book impacted my life more than any other. It really opened my mind to an entire world of dissenting, radical thought that could be both studied, praised or rebuked. A true “The Giver” moment.
I have since moved to San Francisco - once a hot bed for the type of thought I accidentally came across all those years ago. About 6 months ago, while looking through my home library, I once again stumbled upon that book. I was curious, for the first time, who the publisher of this book was. What institution was so radical to give Chomsky a voice even still? And I discovered it was City Lights Publications, the publishing arm of the famous City Lights Bookstore here in San Francisco. Weird how the world works sometimes.
To all reading, if you ever find yourself in San Francisco, you must go to City Lights!
