Surviving the 21st Century

by Noam Chomsky, Saúl Alvídrez (editor), José Mujica

Explore freedom, power, and the biggest challenges of the twenty-first century with two extraordinary thinkers

Two world-renowned figures of contemporary politics come together to discuss timeless topics and debate alternatives for the José “Pepe” Mujica, former president of Uruguay and an ex-guerrilla whose message of sustainability and common sense won him an international following, and Noam Chomsky, who revolutionized linguistics and has become a beacon for radical thinking around the world.

From the meeting of these peerless figures emerge reflections on the major global issues of our climate change, corruption, populism, the crisis of capitalism, and the logic of the market economy, among many others. Chomsky and Mujica emphasize throughout the values required to survive the challenges of the twenty-first century and build a new democracy, freedom, purposeful living, and friendship. Brought together by filmmaker Saúl Alvídrez, these two radical elders share passion, politics, and wisdom.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 28, 2026

About the author

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.

Reviews

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brought together by Mexican activist and documentary filmmaker Saul Alvidrez, two aged leftists—former guerilla and Uruguayan president Jose Mujica and radical scholar Noam Chomsky—discuss the scourge of global capitalism and the prospects for a future post-capitalist recovery. Alvidrez facilitated the main conversation in 2017, with follow-ups in 2022 and 2023. Originally this meeting of the minds was to be made into a film, but that project has since been canceled, per its Kickstarter page. Alvidrez is a millennial and seems a bit starstruck by these two elder giants of the Left, whom he sees as connected in how they approach politics and philosophy. Significantly, these conversations all occurred before Trump was reelected, which renders some of what is said about the 'present' and 'future' irrelevant and/or in need of reconsideration. There is a lot of talk about the continuing promise of socialism in Latin America, despite the partial rightward swing currently happening there, as it is elsewhere in the world. Mujica, who passed away in May of this year (2025), notably lived a modest existence on his farm while serving as the so-called 'poorest president in the world' from 2010 to 2015, during the 'pink tide' of left-wing political victories across Latin America. His contributions pair well with Chomsky’s Western academic style, offering a more pragmatic perspective on some of the more ideological issues under discussion. The book is divided into four main sections: Introductions; How did we get here?; Values for the twenty-first century; and Survival. So, they basically lay out all the terrible things humans have done to each other and to the Earth, and then discuss what should replace the greed, self-interest, and brutality that permeates human history. Both men place much of their hope for the future on young people, while at the same time acknowledging the colossal burden that earlier generations have passed on to them. Since these interviews, Chomsky suffered a massive stroke and has retreated from public life. Thus, this book may hold his last public words, as it likely does for Mujica. For the average informed leftist, it probably won’t blow your mind; however, as when reading one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books, there is a clarity and deeper understanding that comes with seeing a restating and reframing of what you may already think you know, especially when it comes to translating theory into practice. Finally, the title: is it a misnomer? I actually like how open-ended it is. Not 'how to survive' or 'can we survive' but just sitting with the idea of surviving a time period that will surely hold humanity’s reckoning for its many grave mistakes.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journalist had the idea of getting Noam Chomsky and José Mujica together for a conversation on what has to happen for humanity to survive the 21st century well. Noam Chomsky is an intellectual and linguist and José Mujica was the Uruguayan president who lived as a pauper while bringing social reforms to the country. Honestly, I went into this thinking they were going to suggest the impossible, and the idealistic solutions to our social and environmental problems probably are impossible the way we're going now. Basically, you need leaders who are concerned more with the people and the world we live in than power and money. And we need to switch to respecting the land as much as many indigenous groups have.

I think this is more of an intellectual exercise in what-if rather than a real road map to the future. They seem to like the idea of direct democracy on a smaller city-sized scale, which makes more sense there than anywhere else. And they kept talking about anarchy in work environments, but their definition is less one of chaos and more of an environment of collaboration rather than one person being the end-all decider. I'd agree with that but think a better word is merited here.

This ended up being more honest with reality than I assumed it would be. I went into this thinking these guys were going to suggest some form of far-left communism, but I think they see the pitfalls of giving all the power to the government. But unbridled capitalism certainly isn't serving everyone well unless you're at the top. In the end, it seems that their hope is that the young people will rise up from behind their screens and do something about the messed up world they've inherited.

How do we survive the 21st century? Heck if I know.

[Matthew Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this is a really good sendoff to two surprisingly optimistic giants of the left. They analyze everything that's thrown at them succinctly and profoundly. I know it's a little ironic coming from a communist, but I feel like these guys are a little idealistic in their solutions (though it must be admitted that they don't claim to have any solutions and are just trying to point you vaguely in the direction that they think you're supposed to go). Maybe my biggest problem with their idealism is that it puts them in a position where they're kind of ready to condemn anyone who's made progress towards a more leftist future without immediately changing the culture or abolishing the state and put all hope on moderates like Bernie Sanders.

Mujica makes some very good points about a deeper cultural issue underlying our consumerist world and Chomsky really knows everything there is to know about current events, but it's too bad that everything they talked about seems a little bit dated now that the book has been compiled and released so many years later. Like, they're talking about the possibility of Lula going to prison in this book. The biggest problem that I had with it was its exploration of love and all that crummy hippie stuff, but at the end Mujica says something so beautiful that I can forgive it all. Pepe, rest in peace. And Noam, you better not be on that list.😬 Edit: bruh Noam CALLED EPSTEIN WHILE HE WAS VISITING LULA IN PRISON

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mujica: "I sometimes ask myself: Why did I hurry to be born? I would have liked to have been born later and be able to fight today's battles with the younger generation." 🥹🥹

tbh found the analysis less interesting or useful than two nice old men talking about love and raising chickens

[Alex K · Rating 3 out of 5]

covered a wide array of topics top of mind, at least for me, and hopefully for many in this generation - democracy in decline, worsening climate change, ever-growing human greed and selfishness, technolibertarianism, but despite all, the true meaning of life rooted in love and community.

didn't agree with all arguments made, but it's always refreshing and interesting to hear perspectives of those who have seen so much more of the world and society's evolution. it didn't answer all my questions (which was not the expectation anyways) but it got me thinking a lot about the growing importance of community, and how it can foster a sense of belonging, empathy, and selflessness, the values that are being forgotten in the hyper capitalist world we live in. Another big takeaway was that we can all be in charge of our lives. "You may not be able to change the world, but you can learn to walk in the world without being carried along by the current [...] Unlike the other animals, we can in some sense twist the course of our lives, and that is true freedom."

I picked this up not knowing who Jose Mujica was but ended up liking his perspectives more than Noam Chomsky's - his voice felt a lot more down to earth.

Highlighted quotes:

"In general, the idea is that first we destroy their countries, and then we punish the people for trying to escape from the ruins - calling it a "refugee crisis" while thousands drown in the Mediterranean fleeing from Africa, where Europe does have a certain history. In fact, the so-called refugee crisis is actually a serious moral-cultural crisis - in the West."

"the more Arctic ice melts, the more dark water is exposed and the more solar radiation is absorbed instead of being reflected back into the stratosphere by ice, which accelerates climate change."

"The lust for money incites us to keep on buying new things, but sustaining the life of the planet means that we must learn to live with what is necessary and not to squander our resources."

"White supremacism is far more powerful in the United States than in any other country, even South Africa."

"We call terror what others do to us, but not what we do to them. That is how terror is defined in the United States."

"You may not be able to change the world, but you can learn to walk in the world without being carried along by the current [...] Unlike the other animals, we can in some sense twist the course of our lives, and that is true freedom."

"This is how the common good can be achieved, through grassroots organizations working for progressive ends in cooperation with others."

"You must be the master of your own life and not allow it to be managed by a television screen or a cell phone."

[Abdul Alhazred · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two very old men, political activists in their own ways, reflect on the current day in a book tie-in to a documentary. Part lectures, part interview, part dialogue in a slim volume.

Picked this up on a whim from the library display with some skepticism. It's painfully obvious how much Chomsky is stuck in the Cold War worldview with the west and the rest and nuclear war taking a center stage before topics like global warming and income inequality. At the same time the conversation is very much the US vs Russia, even to the point of dismissing conflicts like India/Pakistan in the space of a couple of pages - perhaps the region currently most at risk of a real exchange. Similarly China is waved away by both of them, as if it's not currently dictating policy and waving a bigger economic cudgel than Russia. Chomsky manages to both dismiss China as undeveloped and laud their progress - an excellent opportunity to perhaps offer a steelmanned counterargument to why China's had such progress in becoming the world's manufacturing hub? No such luck. But rest assured neoliberals are evil (and presumably therefore their arguments dissolve). Another interesting point was an opening to react to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but you neither get the "NATO wot done it" talking point or a real condemnation of this being a long term problem (it's bad, but). When given space to talk about South America both men have an opportunity to really unleash some hammer blows against American meddling, but even here there's no depth, you'd get more polemic about it from the fringe right.

They really just come across as too old (Jose died this year, a couple of years after the project), fighting the last war (almost literally), and as to current issues like AI and automation it's insights befitting someone who's read about it in a newspaper. The call to action? We need democracy, we need to ensure redistribution of wealth, more equality. How? That's a challenge for a new generation. And that's fair, but demolishes the central conceit of the book - that the products of the last century have useful advice for this one.

[marta✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the idea is that first we destroy their countries, and then we punish the people for trying to escape from the ruins—calling it a “refugee crisis”.

Surviving the 21st century is a collection of interview passages activist and filmmaker Saúl Alvídrez brought to life after continuous meeting with both men since 2016. I believe it is a privilege to have had both this brilliant intellectuals in the same room sharing their thoughts and opinions.

Divided in a series of four sections —introductions, how did we get here?, values for the twenty-first century and survival— both noah chomsky and pepe mujica give their insight in what society must do to survive this 21st century humans are currently living in.

it is not an easy feat, which they both acknowledge, but setting the guidelines for what we, as a democratic society, must do to improve the current state of the world is perhaps the needed step to do so.

however, as they both acknowledge the burden older generations have left as inheritances, it feels important to admit the burden they are also placing on the younger generations when they state they feel hopeful we'll be able to achieve the needed change in our politics and society.

thank you to Verso Books for the arc of this amazing book in exchange of my honest opinion.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it, and join a union!

I don't know why it says in Goodreads that the book has not been published yet, I got a copy from my local library.

While Chomsky and Mujica are supposed to be the authors, the book is actually a compilation of dialogues from a documentary that Saúl Alvídrez (the interviewer) has filmed. Because of this, don't expect long, elaborated chapters; rather, each chapter is a small snapshot of what Chomsky and Mujica (sometimes with brief interventions from their wives, Valeria Wasserman and Lucía Topolansky) think about a particular topic.
While this makes the book super fast to read, it also means that you are often left wanting more. In particular, I could spend the whole day reading about what Chomsky thinks about any particular topic, as I enjoyed tremendously his interventions. While Mujica is more passionate, and I think sometimes too optimistic (particularly when he talks about his expectations from 'young people' or 'universities'), Chomsky offers longer, more articulate (and more academic, obviously) answers to Alvídrez questions.

Overall, I think it is a beautiful, easy to read book that connects two people that are not only beloved and respected but that are almost larger than life. I recommend that you read it, and then you go and join a union!

[Salha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt more like a conversation rooted in politics and history than a practical guide for the future. Because I lack background knowledge about some of the historical events and political parties discussed, I found it challenging at times. I ended up skipping certain sections, while lingering over and highlighting many others that resonated more strongly with me.

The discussions between Noam Chomsky and José Mujica were particularly engaging. They felt thoughtful and grounded in lived experience rather than abstract theory. The questions posed by Alvídrez also stood out, as they reflected a deep awareness of global realities and an ability to guide the conversation in meaningful directions.

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”

Chomsky’s main message to young people is:
“Think for yourself.” And his fight was for “the freedom of thought.”

“Poor is the one who needs a lot.” - “The lust for money incites us to keep on buying mew things, but sustaining the life of the life of the planet means that we must learn to live with what is necessary and not to squander our resources.”

“… Live as you think. Otherwise we end up thinking as we live.”

I can go on and on sharing quotes I liked without ending. So I will stop here.

[Raimo Wirkkala · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's probably been a decade since the great Noam Chomsky actually wrote a book. What we've had in the interim are books, like this one, basically comprised of the transcripts of interviews (sometimes speeches) that usually include a collaborator of some description. In this case, it is Jose Mujica, a former President of Uruguay.
I feel this book to be a rather sub-standard entry. Some of the observations given here have not aged well, owing to the fact that some of them were made as long ago as 2017. The high hopes for the likes of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn are sorry examples.
Sadly, Mr. Chomsky has suffered a serious stroke (Mujica is now deceased) and it seems very unlikely that there will be any further book projects.
Chomsky is one of the great thinkers of the 20th century and I have enjoyed his penchant for provocative thought and advocacy of that which defies convention.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Look, this is the hundredth book of "interviews" with Noam Chomsky + gang that essentially circles the same basic talking points. Okay, okay, they're good, consistent, yes, and filling the gap of a lack of Chomsky's own once-customary volubility and precise insight - but there is a degree of superficiality to the NC+interview genre. Here, at least, José Mujica brings the wisdom and lived experience of his South American perspective to bear, which is valuable, plus the two get into the personal now and again and reveal a degree of vulnerability that is genuinely touching. A good afternoon's read.

[Rally · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounds up to 4 (good)
I found this discussion very interesting. I have heard the talks by many before but was still an interesting perspective and I liked the interviewer. I am not sure why I expected more solutions for the everyday person to be presented. (which was what I was hoping for). It does bring up good dialogue for discussions and possible solutions though. I found the topic to be sad but realistic. I was glad there was a little humor. It reminded me of the talk show they do while driving around in old cars. Is a good delve into the issues.

[Isaac Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A candid and easily digestable exchange between two formidable greats through the 20th century as they pass the baton to the next generation. Likely the last printed words from either now with Pepe passing and Chomsky losing much of his speech after a stroke in 2023.

Challenging culture through the rise of practical co-operatives, community resilence and deep connections in a decaying world.

[Alan Eyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bracing, refreshing discussion between Chomsky and former Uraguayan President (& politician & revolutionary & farmer) Pepe Mujica. Two thoughtful, principled people speaking uncommon common sense about some of the daunting problems facing us.

[Seneca · Rating 5 out of 5]

insightful dialogue between Chomsky and Jose Mujica, Uruguay's former president about Latin America and US politics, as well as about climate change. Two powerful and influential political thinkers of the 21st century

[Marijke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twee negentigers aan het woord met een schat aan kennis en ervaring over de belangrijkste aspecten van deze eeuw, als deze nog gezond afgemaakt kan worden. Een boekje, en straks documentaire die iedereen zou moeten lezen!

[Mike Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

They will be digging up every recorded conversation or speech that Chomsky ever did and release it as a "new" book for the rest of our lives. A modern Tupac.

[Ricardo Gómez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dos figuras prominentes de la izquierda hablan de retos importantes a enfrentar por la sociedad durante el siglo XXI. Lo recomiendo mucho.

[Casey Marchese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can’t go wrong with think pieces / commentary by Noam Chomsky, the man is brilliant and practical how he speaks on specific topics.

I enjoyed the conversation between him and Jose on a myriad of topics that have been and still are impacting the collective whole of humans.

More brilliant minds should collaborate like this.