Deterring Democracy
"From World War II until the 1980s, the United States reigned supreme as both the economic and the military leader of the world. The major shifts in global politics that came about with the dismantling of the Eastern bloc have left the United States unchallenged as the preeminent military power, but American economic might has declined drastically in the face of competition, first from Germany and Japan ad more recently from newly prosperous countries elsewhere. In Deterring Democracy, the impassioned dissident intellectual Noam Chomsky points to the potentially catastrophic consequences of this new imbalance. Chomsky reveals a world in which the United States exploits its advantage ruthlessly to enforce its national interests--and in the process destroys weaker nations. The new world order (in which the New World give the orders) has arrived."--Publisher's description.
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3mentions
2people
2015–2022years
67% recommend33% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- > In the same way, I question how much "American hegemony" is pushed by America, and how much of it is "pulled" by other countries finding "American" values, perspectives, and positions to be more attractive than other alternatives.
i think the pull exists, at least a little, mainly in areas in free speech, personal wealth accumulation, etc.
but i think 99.99% is push, not pull.
for the 'push' part, you can read this by chomsky (free, online there):
https://zcomm.org/deterring-democracy/
it's not necessarily light reading, but...well, i think our reading abilities have dropped so low that it probably does qualify as complex reading now.
if you don't share chomsky's professed values -- The Golden Rule, elementary moral principles, democracy (not just formal, but actually-functional/functioning), etc. -- you'd probably pretty quickly come to hate that book and all of Chomsky's professed views.
- Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky
https://bookshop.org/books/deterring-democracy/9780374523497
gave me a diff pov on the US/government, in particular. helped start shifting my perspective, break out of the 'indoctrination' of a standard US education, which already included college, gd.
i think it could matter because, if we're going to survive, americans will probably have to start looking at the world a bit differently -- since the US is still, for now, really the sole superpower in the world and effectively sets global policy, including and especially on climate collapse.
i imagine we'll maintain our 'sole superpower' status indefinitely, which doens't bode well for continued organized life on earth, unfortunately, but maybe we can still change our ways. maybe we'll be able to force the 1% to let us live, even in this much-diminished environment.
- Noam Chomsky write in "Deterring Democracy" that Thailand once banned tobacco imports to protect the health of its people, but was forced to back down because the US Federal Government - not a tobacco company - threatened Thailand with trade sanctions.
