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Taming the Rascal Multitude: Essays, Interviews, and Lectures 1997–2014
As Noam Chomsky writes about something—US foreign policy, corporate policies, an election, or a movement—he is not only quite specific in recounting the topic and its facts but also exercises blisteringly relentless logic to discern the interconnections between the evidence and broader themes involved. This may seem mundane, but virtually every time, even aside from the details of the case in question, the process, the steps, the ways of linking one thing to another illustrate what it means to be a thinking, critical subject of history and society, in any time and place. Taming the Rascal Multitude is a judicious selection of essays and interviews from Z Magazine from 1997 to 2014. In each, Chomsky takes up some question of the moment. As such, in sum, the essays provide an historical overview of the history that preceded Trump and the reaction to Trump. The essays situate what followed even without having known what would follow. They explicate what preceded the current era and provide a step-by-step revelation or how-to for successfully comprehending social events and relations. They are a pleasure to read, much like the pleasure of watching a great athlete or performer, but they also edify. They educate. Reading Chomsky is about understanding how society works, how people relate to society and social trends and patterns and why, and, beyond the specifics, how to approach events, relations, occurrences, trends, and patterns in a way that reveals their inner meanings and their outer connections and implications. It is like reading the best you can get about topic after topic, and, more, it is like watching a master-craftsmen in a discipline that ought to be all of ours understanding the world to change it.
- GenresPolitics
448 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2022
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About the author
Noam Chomsky
975 books17.3k followersAvram 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 1, 2022
In Mein Kampf, Hitler sees how the US and England used propaganda so impressively to mobilize for WWI. The US Creel Commission used blatant propaganda during WWI to get non-interventionist US males to want to leave their homes and kill other humans through pressure and bold lies - Hitler saw that and said, Wow. I want a piece of that; we lost WWI because we lost the propaganda battle but that won’t happen again. Meanwhile Edward Bernays, the father of Public Relations, sees how the US lies to gets its youth off fast and effectively to war and writes in 1928 his famous book Propaganda. In it, Edward states what he learned was through applying the lessons learned in selling WWI. Walter Lippman was part of the Creel Commission and he said if you do it right, voting can be irrelevant because you can manufacture consent. Deceiving the people, through false PR, what a high moral bar. Noam calls Bernays a “Kennedy liberal” because “he also engineered the public relations effort behind the US-backed coup that overthrew the democratic government of Guatemala.”
The last part of the Pentagon Papers shows that after the Tet offensive, the military command was reluctant to send more troops to Vietnam because they had to make sure “sufficient forces could still be available for civil disorder control.” Command worried “provoking a domestic crisis of unprecedented proportions.” “
When the US finally signed the Genocide Convention after 40 years, it did so with the reservation stating that it is not applicable to the US.” If the US is granted the right of “anticipatory self-defense” against terror, then why didn’t Cuba and Nicaragua get that right against years of US inflicted terror? Think of Cuba as one of the biggest violations of our Monroe Doctrine, lest other Latin American countries learn from the example. Did you know most Americans believe the US should give up the UN Security Council veto, and “80% favor guaranteed health care even if it raises taxes”? Opposition to free healthcare comes from insurance companies, HMO’s pharmaceutical industries, and Wall Street.
People in Iraq were asked questions about the Iraq War in a poll. 1% thought the US goal was to bring democracy. 5% thought the goal was to help Iraqis. The vast majority said the US was there to take Iraq’s resources and use Iraq as a military base stepping-stone. Nicaragua was taught that “no country has a right to defend civilians from US attack.” Reagan with a straight face called Nicaragua a threat to the US. When JFK was rallying support against Cuba, a Mexican diplomat said, “If we publicly declare that Cuba is a threat to our security, forty million Mexicans will die laughing.”
Noam thinks the US works off this thesis: “Remember, this country was settled by religious fanatics.” “There’s a streak of providentialism, meaning carrying out God’s will.” “The US has every right to overthrow any government, in this case, by aggression, large scale terror over many years, and economic strangulation.” Madeleine “Albright repeated the doctrine, “it is possible that he will come up with something we don’t like, in which case we will pursue our national interest.” When Senator John McCain warned that “the United States may be subordinating its power to the United Nations”, Noam reminds us, “an obligation, only for law-abiding states.” Even the liberal Boston Globe gets in on the rogue state approach writing that regarding the US attacking Iraq, “it would have been irresponsible not to.” Ah, the joys of rogue states like the US and Israel “that reject the rule of law.” Don’t say the US acts as the world’s police; policemen “in principle are supposed to enforce the law, not tear it to shreds.”
Secretary of State George Schultz said, “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.” The NYT happily ignored international law when it wrote, “Any President has a duty to use military force to protect the nation’s interests.” When Clinton said Cuba was trying to destabilize Latin America, he meant Cuba was “demanding opportunities for a decent living.” Before NAFTA happened, a study showed it would “harm most of the population of North America” and still it went through. The real goal was to lock Mexico into reforms. “NAFTA was considered to be an effective device to diminish the threat of democracy.” “India produced as much iron as all Europe in the late eighteenth century.” “After 150 years of protectionism and violence, the US had become by far the richest and most powerful country in the world.”
What is the US militarily protecting us citizens from? Requests to follow international law? We were taught that Saddam committed atrocities in Kuwait, yet any inspection of facts show that “US sponsored atrocities in East Timor (by itself) were vastly beyond anything attributed to Saddam Hussein in Kuwait.” When Saddam gasses the Kurds in Halabja in 1988, the US and UK referred to him as “our kind of guy.” Churchill deplored the “squeamishness about the use of gas.” Saddam killed 37 US soldiers on the USS Stark and the US overlooked it because to murders were done by a US ally, so all was forgiven. Explain that to the families of those killed. “It was South Vietnam that was targeted for chemical warfare, not the North. You still have children in Vietnamese hospitals suffering from birth defects and cancer from exposure to US made toxins”. The US commits terrorist acts against Cuba for over 40 years, yet thinks it gets to call Cuba terrorist.
“It’s not so clear the human species can survive under existing state capitalist institutions.” “The main innovation of the Reagan/Clinton years is that defiance of international law and solemn obligations has become entirely open.” “The US has chosen a course of action which escalates atrocities and violence.” The famed Samuel Huntington said, “Realist international relations theory predicts that coalitions may arise to counterbalance the rogue superpower.” US foreign policy is thus protecting the US rogue state from any formations of such coalitions that can naturally occur as blowback after any episode of US lawlessness abroad.
Columbia: Note Columbia as top receiver of aid at the same time having the worst human rights record. Columbia hit the skids when JFK & Co. “took great pains to transform our (a former Columbian minister is saying this) regular armies into counterinsurgency brigades.” Switching Latin American countries from external to internal security happens under Camelot’s watch. Think of it as the sudden criminalization of protest, because the goals of guerrillas were usually “social democratic”. The problem in Columbia was no land reform, and now “traffickers now control much of Columbia’s valuable land.” “Columbia was once a major wheat producer.”
“IMF-World Bank programs demand that countries open their borders to a flood of (heavily subsidized) agricultural products from the rich countries, with the obvious effect of undermining local production.” Columbia not only had to sell US products but had to advertise them or suffer trade sanctions. What if every time the US fumigated (destroyed) Columbia’s crops, Columbia came up and fumigated (destroyed) our US tobacco crop on the grounds that our tobacco kills more people than their crop? If tobacco is the drug kills the most, why such parables of fairness so outlandish? Noam wants us to pay close attention to the fact that US tobacco is a huge export, and the US shamelessly pushes these death sticks on the world rather like Britain once relentlessly pushed opium on the Chinese to build up UK silver reserves. Brits pushing opium on China, Noam calls the largest narcotrafficking operation in history.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted a long time ago that the US drug war would end up creating “an intense crime problem concentrated among minorities.” Get rid of the ‘superfluous’ population and frighten everyone else. Treatment and prevention are the best ways to treat drug problems, but neither involve paying white men in impressive uniforms, and shiny badges, throwing their weight around. Drug laws are about social control and have “little” to do with drugs. “After Reconstruction, African-American life was effectively criminalized.”
South Africa doesn’t restrict voting for criminals; in the United States criminals can’t vote but instead, the rest of us get to choose which criminal we want to vote for. Every four years we can choose which President will next violate Nuremberg Principles (and thus the constitution) and wage covert regime change, and extra judicial murder on behalf of shameless neoliberalism.
A recent Canadian poll saw the US as the greatest threat to world peace. A Time Magazine poll found 80% of people in Europe saw the US as the greatest threat to world peace. Wait, a minute, I’m seeing a pattern here. “Bear in mind that the US is the only country outside of Iraq where Saddam Hussein is not only reviled but also feared.” The US propaganda was so successful one poll showed the 60 to 70% of the US population feared Saddam would attack the US. - Mission Comical Ignorance achieved. Look at it this way, both Iraq and Iran are Shia majority nations, and they control a lot of the world’s oil; will the US accept a Shiite alliance controlling most of the world’s oil? Or will the US find itself up Shiite Creek?
Russian nuclear submarine commander Vasily Arkhipov (Google him) by himself kept the Northern Hemisphere from being destroyed. God forbid, Americans teach his name during Russia hating season. We also owe our lives to Russian Stanislav Petrov in a nuclear submarine not pushing a button when told to during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the 80’s, President Reagan told us the Nicaraguan army was only two day’s march from Texas and then with a straight face declares a national emergency in 1985. The ICJ Court charged the US with “unlawful use of force” and ordered it to pay “terminate the crimes and pay substantial reparations” to Nicaragua. The US dismissed the judgement and vetoed two Security Council Resolutions against it. Wow. This is when the US sadly becomes “the only country to have vetoed a Security Council resolution calling on all states to obey international law”.
“The class modern strategy of an endangered right-wing oligarchy is to divert mass discontent into nationalism.” Great Noam point: You always need a new external dragon the people want you to slay “because if the administration lets domestic issues prevail, it is in deep trouble.” Why doesn’t the US pay Iraq reparations for sanctions? When dirty fighting, always choose the weakest opponent, then use lies and deception to gain support. Iraq was attacked because it was defenseless. North Korea has missiles aimed at Seoul – not exactly defenseless. US view of the UN: if “it isn’t following orders, of what use is it?”
Haiti: The US hated the Haiti election of Aristide because a grassroots community clearly elected a populist candidate. A grassroots community clearly electing a populist, wasn’t that how Jesus got his followers before Instagram and TikTok? If Jesus were crucified today, I can picture a long line of sunglasses and iPhones while the disgruntled say, “I can’t get Wi-Fi”, “what filter are you using?” and “Jesus, can you look left?” Anyway, the US fights “the ‘virus’ effect of successful independent development” and so in the end, Aristide and Haiti was “compelled to adopt” a “harsh neoliberal program” destroying any “shreds of economic sovereignty.” If Jesus came back in a Netflix movie, the US would want the role of Pontius Pilate so it could practice method acting. When we are told Haiti is a failed state, we aren’t told it must compete with intentionally heavily subsidized US agribusiness or how it had to pay billions in reparations to France. The US gets to dump its surpluses (like dark chicken meat) in Haiti and Haitians (thanks to the neoliberal reforms) can’t stop it.
“Reagan was the most protectionist president in post-war US history.” Neither political party wants you to know that bipartisan neoliberal principles are designed to attack democracy. Privatization puts things that are in public hands into totalitarian hands (corporations are totalitarian); trade in services means selling off services. Both parties play a delightful immigrant game with intentionally oppressive things like NAFTA; “First destroy their economy and then keep them out.” One of the first goals of US foreign policy was “control Latin America.” It’s nice to have goals (too bad ours are designed to hurt others). England’s pig trade brought “kidnapped Chinese workers to the United States to build the railroads.”
Washington supported the 2002 Venezuela Coup. Why? The first act of its new US-supported leader was “to disband Parliament, eliminate the Supreme Court, and get rid of every other vestige of democracy – that’s what the US calls ‘democracy promotion’.” The US is super upset that Latin American countries are getting closer to China after decades of obvious US meddling while offering nothing in return (beyond cash to the elites). “American elections systematically keep away from issues and focus on personality, character, and what are called values, whatever that means.”
Funny how John McCain’s full expertise in National Security was in knowing how to bomb humans from above, and allowing himself to be shot down. How that made him a hero is hard to fathom. Sarah Palin was chosen because you couldn’t attack her without appearing sexist. That Gorbachev allowed Germany to join a hostile military alliance was “an incredible concession”. One of Clinton’s first acts was to “renege on the promise” to not expand NATO east. Clinton’s programs “were designed to essentially destroy the Russian economy which they did, with the cooperation of the Russian leaders, who were pleased to become the counterpart to the Third World gangsters who run their countries and enrich themselves.” These neoliberal programs led to millions of deaths and halving the Russian economy. “That was their goal.”
The US constantly violates Nuremberg Principles (the very reason we fought WWII), yet escaping justice for those crimes means (as Nuremberg’s chief prosecutor said) the “(Nuremburg) trial is (was) a farce as it’s just punishment by victors, not a step towards justice.” The US doesn’t have a problem with terrorists otherwise Juan Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles would be in jail instead of free in the US. The Justice Department and FBI both thought Bosch was a terrorist who had committed “thirty terrorist acts.” Cuba has a legal right to have Carriles returned, but we still have to make a Mafia example of ‘defiant’ Cuba. The US calls terrorist, anyone who is “essentially defending themselves from our actions”, as a CIA head under Clinton (Michael Scheuer) admitted. “Atomization of society and entrapment of isolated individuals with self-destructive ambitions and crushing debt.” Note the US market gives you a choice between a Honda and a Ford (two negatives), but not between a car and a train (a negative and a positive).
Israel: Moshe Dayan conceded in 1967 that Israeli settlements violated international law but if you say that today, you’ll be somehow accused of anti-Semitism. Same thing if you question why Palestinians get “one fourth as much water as Israelis”. “Today, 96% of Gaza’s population of 1.4 million is dependent on humanitarian aid for basic needs.” Before June 2006, there were 4,000 items allowed into Gaza. Now there are only 30 to 40 commercial items allowed to enter Gaza. The joys of ignoring international law and telling people who look different to you what they can and can’t do as if they are children. No one talks about Gaza having a naval blockade or even a collapsed fishing industry due to Israeli induced pollution. A recent poll shows that it’s not the Israeli public, but the Israeli military that opposes a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East (inclusive of Israel and Iran). “It’s just the public that wants it.”
Imagine the Western Media telling its readers that Moshe Dayan told Palestinians, “We have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and who ever wishes, may leave, and we shall see where this process leads” (Yossi Beilin, Mehiro shel Ihud). It’s illegal (under US law and international law) for Israel to use US arms in Gaza. We should compare England and Ireland to Israel and the Palestinians. England had no right to use force against Ireland because it had peaceful alternatives, like merely recognizing Ireland’s grievances. “When Britain adopted that course, the terror ended.” To stop terrorism, maybe simply stop participating in it.
US History: The original Great Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony showed a native with “Come over and help us” coming out of his mouth – the British laughably as benevolent humanists. The first US Secretary of War, General Henry Knox wrote of killing off the native population by means “more destructive to the Indian natives than the conduct of the conquerors of Mexico and Peru.” The CIA’s “torture paradigm” was “developed at a cost reaching $1 billion annually according to historian Alfred McCoy.” Obama did nothing to stop US torture done by foreigners, he just stopped the rare times torture was directly inflicted by Americans (see Allan Nairn). In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo prisoners were entitled to habeas corpus. Bush responded by sending them to Bagram where “you can disappear them forever with no judicial process.” Obama did the same. Then a Bush-appointed federal judge says, ‘Hey guys, disappearing humans at Bagram is just as illegal as Guantanamo’. Then Obama administration leapt into action …and said it would appeal the ruling. Obama can’t disappear anyone with a wave of his hand? What’s this world coming to?
One of the top US interrogators in Iraq “discovered that foreign fighters came to Iraq in reaction to the abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Graib, and that they and domestic allies turned to suicide bombing for the same reason” (see Cockburn 2009). Endless wars against terrorism mathematically demand you create more terrorists than you kill. I don’t want to brag, but is there any country for decades that works harder to create more enemies worldwide? We’re number one, baby!
The rest of this review continues in the comments section because it was deemed too long. Great book!
The last part of the Pentagon Papers shows that after the Tet offensive, the military command was reluctant to send more troops to Vietnam because they had to make sure “sufficient forces could still be available for civil disorder control.” Command worried “provoking a domestic crisis of unprecedented proportions.” “
When the US finally signed the Genocide Convention after 40 years, it did so with the reservation stating that it is not applicable to the US.” If the US is granted the right of “anticipatory self-defense” against terror, then why didn’t Cuba and Nicaragua get that right against years of US inflicted terror? Think of Cuba as one of the biggest violations of our Monroe Doctrine, lest other Latin American countries learn from the example. Did you know most Americans believe the US should give up the UN Security Council veto, and “80% favor guaranteed health care even if it raises taxes”? Opposition to free healthcare comes from insurance companies, HMO’s pharmaceutical industries, and Wall Street.
People in Iraq were asked questions about the Iraq War in a poll. 1% thought the US goal was to bring democracy. 5% thought the goal was to help Iraqis. The vast majority said the US was there to take Iraq’s resources and use Iraq as a military base stepping-stone. Nicaragua was taught that “no country has a right to defend civilians from US attack.” Reagan with a straight face called Nicaragua a threat to the US. When JFK was rallying support against Cuba, a Mexican diplomat said, “If we publicly declare that Cuba is a threat to our security, forty million Mexicans will die laughing.”
Noam thinks the US works off this thesis: “Remember, this country was settled by religious fanatics.” “There’s a streak of providentialism, meaning carrying out God’s will.” “The US has every right to overthrow any government, in this case, by aggression, large scale terror over many years, and economic strangulation.” Madeleine “Albright repeated the doctrine, “it is possible that he will come up with something we don’t like, in which case we will pursue our national interest.” When Senator John McCain warned that “the United States may be subordinating its power to the United Nations”, Noam reminds us, “an obligation, only for law-abiding states.” Even the liberal Boston Globe gets in on the rogue state approach writing that regarding the US attacking Iraq, “it would have been irresponsible not to.” Ah, the joys of rogue states like the US and Israel “that reject the rule of law.” Don’t say the US acts as the world’s police; policemen “in principle are supposed to enforce the law, not tear it to shreds.”
Secretary of State George Schultz said, “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.” The NYT happily ignored international law when it wrote, “Any President has a duty to use military force to protect the nation’s interests.” When Clinton said Cuba was trying to destabilize Latin America, he meant Cuba was “demanding opportunities for a decent living.” Before NAFTA happened, a study showed it would “harm most of the population of North America” and still it went through. The real goal was to lock Mexico into reforms. “NAFTA was considered to be an effective device to diminish the threat of democracy.” “India produced as much iron as all Europe in the late eighteenth century.” “After 150 years of protectionism and violence, the US had become by far the richest and most powerful country in the world.”
What is the US militarily protecting us citizens from? Requests to follow international law? We were taught that Saddam committed atrocities in Kuwait, yet any inspection of facts show that “US sponsored atrocities in East Timor (by itself) were vastly beyond anything attributed to Saddam Hussein in Kuwait.” When Saddam gasses the Kurds in Halabja in 1988, the US and UK referred to him as “our kind of guy.” Churchill deplored the “squeamishness about the use of gas.” Saddam killed 37 US soldiers on the USS Stark and the US overlooked it because to murders were done by a US ally, so all was forgiven. Explain that to the families of those killed. “It was South Vietnam that was targeted for chemical warfare, not the North. You still have children in Vietnamese hospitals suffering from birth defects and cancer from exposure to US made toxins”. The US commits terrorist acts against Cuba for over 40 years, yet thinks it gets to call Cuba terrorist.
“It’s not so clear the human species can survive under existing state capitalist institutions.” “The main innovation of the Reagan/Clinton years is that defiance of international law and solemn obligations has become entirely open.” “The US has chosen a course of action which escalates atrocities and violence.” The famed Samuel Huntington said, “Realist international relations theory predicts that coalitions may arise to counterbalance the rogue superpower.” US foreign policy is thus protecting the US rogue state from any formations of such coalitions that can naturally occur as blowback after any episode of US lawlessness abroad.
Columbia: Note Columbia as top receiver of aid at the same time having the worst human rights record. Columbia hit the skids when JFK & Co. “took great pains to transform our (a former Columbian minister is saying this) regular armies into counterinsurgency brigades.” Switching Latin American countries from external to internal security happens under Camelot’s watch. Think of it as the sudden criminalization of protest, because the goals of guerrillas were usually “social democratic”. The problem in Columbia was no land reform, and now “traffickers now control much of Columbia’s valuable land.” “Columbia was once a major wheat producer.”
“IMF-World Bank programs demand that countries open their borders to a flood of (heavily subsidized) agricultural products from the rich countries, with the obvious effect of undermining local production.” Columbia not only had to sell US products but had to advertise them or suffer trade sanctions. What if every time the US fumigated (destroyed) Columbia’s crops, Columbia came up and fumigated (destroyed) our US tobacco crop on the grounds that our tobacco kills more people than their crop? If tobacco is the drug kills the most, why such parables of fairness so outlandish? Noam wants us to pay close attention to the fact that US tobacco is a huge export, and the US shamelessly pushes these death sticks on the world rather like Britain once relentlessly pushed opium on the Chinese to build up UK silver reserves. Brits pushing opium on China, Noam calls the largest narcotrafficking operation in history.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted a long time ago that the US drug war would end up creating “an intense crime problem concentrated among minorities.” Get rid of the ‘superfluous’ population and frighten everyone else. Treatment and prevention are the best ways to treat drug problems, but neither involve paying white men in impressive uniforms, and shiny badges, throwing their weight around. Drug laws are about social control and have “little” to do with drugs. “After Reconstruction, African-American life was effectively criminalized.”
South Africa doesn’t restrict voting for criminals; in the United States criminals can’t vote but instead, the rest of us get to choose which criminal we want to vote for. Every four years we can choose which President will next violate Nuremberg Principles (and thus the constitution) and wage covert regime change, and extra judicial murder on behalf of shameless neoliberalism.
A recent Canadian poll saw the US as the greatest threat to world peace. A Time Magazine poll found 80% of people in Europe saw the US as the greatest threat to world peace. Wait, a minute, I’m seeing a pattern here. “Bear in mind that the US is the only country outside of Iraq where Saddam Hussein is not only reviled but also feared.” The US propaganda was so successful one poll showed the 60 to 70% of the US population feared Saddam would attack the US. - Mission Comical Ignorance achieved. Look at it this way, both Iraq and Iran are Shia majority nations, and they control a lot of the world’s oil; will the US accept a Shiite alliance controlling most of the world’s oil? Or will the US find itself up Shiite Creek?
Russian nuclear submarine commander Vasily Arkhipov (Google him) by himself kept the Northern Hemisphere from being destroyed. God forbid, Americans teach his name during Russia hating season. We also owe our lives to Russian Stanislav Petrov in a nuclear submarine not pushing a button when told to during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the 80’s, President Reagan told us the Nicaraguan army was only two day’s march from Texas and then with a straight face declares a national emergency in 1985. The ICJ Court charged the US with “unlawful use of force” and ordered it to pay “terminate the crimes and pay substantial reparations” to Nicaragua. The US dismissed the judgement and vetoed two Security Council Resolutions against it. Wow. This is when the US sadly becomes “the only country to have vetoed a Security Council resolution calling on all states to obey international law”.
“The class modern strategy of an endangered right-wing oligarchy is to divert mass discontent into nationalism.” Great Noam point: You always need a new external dragon the people want you to slay “because if the administration lets domestic issues prevail, it is in deep trouble.” Why doesn’t the US pay Iraq reparations for sanctions? When dirty fighting, always choose the weakest opponent, then use lies and deception to gain support. Iraq was attacked because it was defenseless. North Korea has missiles aimed at Seoul – not exactly defenseless. US view of the UN: if “it isn’t following orders, of what use is it?”
Haiti: The US hated the Haiti election of Aristide because a grassroots community clearly elected a populist candidate. A grassroots community clearly electing a populist, wasn’t that how Jesus got his followers before Instagram and TikTok? If Jesus were crucified today, I can picture a long line of sunglasses and iPhones while the disgruntled say, “I can’t get Wi-Fi”, “what filter are you using?” and “Jesus, can you look left?” Anyway, the US fights “the ‘virus’ effect of successful independent development” and so in the end, Aristide and Haiti was “compelled to adopt” a “harsh neoliberal program” destroying any “shreds of economic sovereignty.” If Jesus came back in a Netflix movie, the US would want the role of Pontius Pilate so it could practice method acting. When we are told Haiti is a failed state, we aren’t told it must compete with intentionally heavily subsidized US agribusiness or how it had to pay billions in reparations to France. The US gets to dump its surpluses (like dark chicken meat) in Haiti and Haitians (thanks to the neoliberal reforms) can’t stop it.
“Reagan was the most protectionist president in post-war US history.” Neither political party wants you to know that bipartisan neoliberal principles are designed to attack democracy. Privatization puts things that are in public hands into totalitarian hands (corporations are totalitarian); trade in services means selling off services. Both parties play a delightful immigrant game with intentionally oppressive things like NAFTA; “First destroy their economy and then keep them out.” One of the first goals of US foreign policy was “control Latin America.” It’s nice to have goals (too bad ours are designed to hurt others). England’s pig trade brought “kidnapped Chinese workers to the United States to build the railroads.”
Washington supported the 2002 Venezuela Coup. Why? The first act of its new US-supported leader was “to disband Parliament, eliminate the Supreme Court, and get rid of every other vestige of democracy – that’s what the US calls ‘democracy promotion’.” The US is super upset that Latin American countries are getting closer to China after decades of obvious US meddling while offering nothing in return (beyond cash to the elites). “American elections systematically keep away from issues and focus on personality, character, and what are called values, whatever that means.”
Funny how John McCain’s full expertise in National Security was in knowing how to bomb humans from above, and allowing himself to be shot down. How that made him a hero is hard to fathom. Sarah Palin was chosen because you couldn’t attack her without appearing sexist. That Gorbachev allowed Germany to join a hostile military alliance was “an incredible concession”. One of Clinton’s first acts was to “renege on the promise” to not expand NATO east. Clinton’s programs “were designed to essentially destroy the Russian economy which they did, with the cooperation of the Russian leaders, who were pleased to become the counterpart to the Third World gangsters who run their countries and enrich themselves.” These neoliberal programs led to millions of deaths and halving the Russian economy. “That was their goal.”
The US constantly violates Nuremberg Principles (the very reason we fought WWII), yet escaping justice for those crimes means (as Nuremberg’s chief prosecutor said) the “(Nuremburg) trial is (was) a farce as it’s just punishment by victors, not a step towards justice.” The US doesn’t have a problem with terrorists otherwise Juan Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles would be in jail instead of free in the US. The Justice Department and FBI both thought Bosch was a terrorist who had committed “thirty terrorist acts.” Cuba has a legal right to have Carriles returned, but we still have to make a Mafia example of ‘defiant’ Cuba. The US calls terrorist, anyone who is “essentially defending themselves from our actions”, as a CIA head under Clinton (Michael Scheuer) admitted. “Atomization of society and entrapment of isolated individuals with self-destructive ambitions and crushing debt.” Note the US market gives you a choice between a Honda and a Ford (two negatives), but not between a car and a train (a negative and a positive).
Israel: Moshe Dayan conceded in 1967 that Israeli settlements violated international law but if you say that today, you’ll be somehow accused of anti-Semitism. Same thing if you question why Palestinians get “one fourth as much water as Israelis”. “Today, 96% of Gaza’s population of 1.4 million is dependent on humanitarian aid for basic needs.” Before June 2006, there were 4,000 items allowed into Gaza. Now there are only 30 to 40 commercial items allowed to enter Gaza. The joys of ignoring international law and telling people who look different to you what they can and can’t do as if they are children. No one talks about Gaza having a naval blockade or even a collapsed fishing industry due to Israeli induced pollution. A recent poll shows that it’s not the Israeli public, but the Israeli military that opposes a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East (inclusive of Israel and Iran). “It’s just the public that wants it.”
Imagine the Western Media telling its readers that Moshe Dayan told Palestinians, “We have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and who ever wishes, may leave, and we shall see where this process leads” (Yossi Beilin, Mehiro shel Ihud). It’s illegal (under US law and international law) for Israel to use US arms in Gaza. We should compare England and Ireland to Israel and the Palestinians. England had no right to use force against Ireland because it had peaceful alternatives, like merely recognizing Ireland’s grievances. “When Britain adopted that course, the terror ended.” To stop terrorism, maybe simply stop participating in it.
US History: The original Great Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony showed a native with “Come over and help us” coming out of his mouth – the British laughably as benevolent humanists. The first US Secretary of War, General Henry Knox wrote of killing off the native population by means “more destructive to the Indian natives than the conduct of the conquerors of Mexico and Peru.” The CIA’s “torture paradigm” was “developed at a cost reaching $1 billion annually according to historian Alfred McCoy.” Obama did nothing to stop US torture done by foreigners, he just stopped the rare times torture was directly inflicted by Americans (see Allan Nairn). In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that Guantanamo prisoners were entitled to habeas corpus. Bush responded by sending them to Bagram where “you can disappear them forever with no judicial process.” Obama did the same. Then a Bush-appointed federal judge says, ‘Hey guys, disappearing humans at Bagram is just as illegal as Guantanamo’. Then Obama administration leapt into action …and said it would appeal the ruling. Obama can’t disappear anyone with a wave of his hand? What’s this world coming to?
One of the top US interrogators in Iraq “discovered that foreign fighters came to Iraq in reaction to the abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Graib, and that they and domestic allies turned to suicide bombing for the same reason” (see Cockburn 2009). Endless wars against terrorism mathematically demand you create more terrorists than you kill. I don’t want to brag, but is there any country for decades that works harder to create more enemies worldwide? We’re number one, baby!
The rest of this review continues in the comments section because it was deemed too long. Great book!
July 12, 2023
Taming the Rascal Multitude: Essays, Interviews and Lectures 1997-2014, Noam Chomsky, 2022, 439 pages, ISBN 9781629638782
Lots here about where we're going and why we're in this handbasket.
Chomsky is uniquely informed on what corporations, plutocrats, and their political servants are up to. He has no special sources of information: he merely obsessively reads the business and political news in several languages. He often points out that what people are demanding really does matter, and that there has been significant progress because of it.
Wall Street owns the politicians of both parties. p. 317-318, 328, 332, 335-338, 345, 380-381.
The U.S. is a rogue state, using military and economic terrorism worldwide. p. 338.
The strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must. --Thucydides. p. 335.
Forty percent of U.S. agribusiness gross income was government subsidy, by 1987. p. 68. Clinton militarized the U.S./Mexico border to keep people out, whose farm livelihoods were destroyed by U.S.-Government-subsidized agricultural commodities dumped on the world market--and to keep out refugees from U.S. terrorist wars in Central America. pp. 197, 343-344, 353.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962, Russian submarine captain Vasily Arkhipov saved the world from nuclear war by defying an order to launch missiles when U.S. destroyers attacked Russian submarines. No one in the U.S. knew this until 2002. pp. 159, 361.
There are much higher priorities for the U.S. government than preventing nuclear war, or than preserving a livable environment. Some of those priorities are to maximize next quarter's profit for the masters of the universe. States are not interested in security. They’re interested in power and the power of the dominant sectors within them. p. 316, 363, https://chomsky.info/20230606-2/
There's been a transfer of wealth from the lower 90 percent of income level to the top 1 percent over the 40 years since Reagan, roughly $50 trillion. https://chomsky.info/20230606-2/ This is the result of deliberate policy choices by U.S. Government officials: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... pp. 380-381.
If some fiction writer imagined a concept of hell, it would be a market society. pp. 378, 383, 389-390.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is part of the biggest giveaway of public assets in history. p. 17. It killed local radio: https://www.35000watts.com/the-teleco...
In the 2000 elections [Bush beat Gore by 537 Florida votes], almost half the electorate did not participate. Voting correlated with income. U.S. voter turnout is among the lowest and most class-skewed in the industrial world. Monied interests focus voter attention on style and personality. p. 126. Voters strongly preferred Gore's policies over Bush's, as they had preferred Carter's policies over Reagan's, but in horse-race campaigning, policy doesn't show. Owners of media companies want, and get, content-free campaign coverage. pp. 126-127, 142-144, 147-148, 337. In seven states, one in four black men is permanently barred from voting; 31% in Florida, 45% in New Mexico. (Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, Wyoming.) These would largely be Democratic votes. Democratic politicians are scared of being called soft on crime, so they keep quiet. pp. 280-282, 320, 372.
The American colonial leaders knew that if the thirteen colonies stayed within English jurisdiction and under British law, pretty soon slavery might be outlawed. It was probably a major factor in the revolution. … The Civil War is still being fought in the United States. Red and blue states. p. 379.
Our last liberal president was Richard Nixon. pp. 8, 124.
One-sixth of U.S. GDP is marketing, largely advertising. 1997. p. 15.
Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business. --John Dewey. p. 176.
Much of this appeared in Z Magazine https://znetwork.org/author/noamchomsky/ , where Chomsky has still been appearing regularly.
See also https://chomsky.info/ .
Chomsky in La Jornada: https://www.jornada.com.mx/chomsky.html
See also /Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky/, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Lots here about where we're going and why we're in this handbasket.
Chomsky is uniquely informed on what corporations, plutocrats, and their political servants are up to. He has no special sources of information: he merely obsessively reads the business and political news in several languages. He often points out that what people are demanding really does matter, and that there has been significant progress because of it.
Wall Street owns the politicians of both parties. p. 317-318, 328, 332, 335-338, 345, 380-381.
The U.S. is a rogue state, using military and economic terrorism worldwide. p. 338.
The strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must. --Thucydides. p. 335.
Forty percent of U.S. agribusiness gross income was government subsidy, by 1987. p. 68. Clinton militarized the U.S./Mexico border to keep people out, whose farm livelihoods were destroyed by U.S.-Government-subsidized agricultural commodities dumped on the world market--and to keep out refugees from U.S. terrorist wars in Central America. pp. 197, 343-344, 353.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962, Russian submarine captain Vasily Arkhipov saved the world from nuclear war by defying an order to launch missiles when U.S. destroyers attacked Russian submarines. No one in the U.S. knew this until 2002. pp. 159, 361.
There are much higher priorities for the U.S. government than preventing nuclear war, or than preserving a livable environment. Some of those priorities are to maximize next quarter's profit for the masters of the universe. States are not interested in security. They’re interested in power and the power of the dominant sectors within them. p. 316, 363, https://chomsky.info/20230606-2/
There's been a transfer of wealth from the lower 90 percent of income level to the top 1 percent over the 40 years since Reagan, roughly $50 trillion. https://chomsky.info/20230606-2/ This is the result of deliberate policy choices by U.S. Government officials: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... pp. 380-381.
If some fiction writer imagined a concept of hell, it would be a market society. pp. 378, 383, 389-390.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is part of the biggest giveaway of public assets in history. p. 17. It killed local radio: https://www.35000watts.com/the-teleco...
In the 2000 elections [Bush beat Gore by 537 Florida votes], almost half the electorate did not participate. Voting correlated with income. U.S. voter turnout is among the lowest and most class-skewed in the industrial world. Monied interests focus voter attention on style and personality. p. 126. Voters strongly preferred Gore's policies over Bush's, as they had preferred Carter's policies over Reagan's, but in horse-race campaigning, policy doesn't show. Owners of media companies want, and get, content-free campaign coverage. pp. 126-127, 142-144, 147-148, 337. In seven states, one in four black men is permanently barred from voting; 31% in Florida, 45% in New Mexico. (Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, Wyoming.) These would largely be Democratic votes. Democratic politicians are scared of being called soft on crime, so they keep quiet. pp. 280-282, 320, 372.
The American colonial leaders knew that if the thirteen colonies stayed within English jurisdiction and under British law, pretty soon slavery might be outlawed. It was probably a major factor in the revolution. … The Civil War is still being fought in the United States. Red and blue states. p. 379.
Our last liberal president was Richard Nixon. pp. 8, 124.
One-sixth of U.S. GDP is marketing, largely advertising. 1997. p. 15.
Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business. --John Dewey. p. 176.
Much of this appeared in Z Magazine https://znetwork.org/author/noamchomsky/ , where Chomsky has still been appearing regularly.
See also https://chomsky.info/ .
Chomsky in La Jornada: https://www.jornada.com.mx/chomsky.html
See also /Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky/, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
October 3, 2022
It still amazes me that works like Taming the Rascal Multitude which are collections of older interviews and essays always seem to stay fresh, including new information and takes as well as reaffirming older works of Chomsky’s. There’s so much ground covered and sources used which would normally leave a book like this aimless and yet here it’s just an onslaught of useful information and a breeze to read.
July 7, 2022
A series of essays from Noam Chomsky spanning the late 90s through 2014.
Excellent essays on an array of political topics, foreign and domestic.
Excellent essays on an array of political topics, foreign and domestic.
October 23, 2024
Chomsky is brilliant and his points are well argued, as always. There are essays here that touch on all the 20th century US presidents, Vietnam, East Timor, Cambodia, Laos, Cuba, Columbia, Haiti, Mexico, Britain, India, the Balkans, and the entire Middle East. Chomsky discusses surveillance, war, torture, terrorism, treaties, finance, founding fathers, voter participation, and more. He plays all the greatest hits, and gives you an encore with something new every time you've thought you heard it all before.
Michael Albert is an incompetent editor, and one wonders if this has the most bearing on the failures of the various branches of his Z empire. His choice to place an over 30 page excerpt from his memoir as an afterword because it mentions Chomsky tangentially a few times is wildly indulgent. And his choice to organize the essays neither chronologically, nor thematically is inscrutable.
Michael Albert is an incompetent editor, and one wonders if this has the most bearing on the failures of the various branches of his Z empire. His choice to place an over 30 page excerpt from his memoir as an afterword because it mentions Chomsky tangentially a few times is wildly indulgent. And his choice to organize the essays neither chronologically, nor thematically is inscrutable.
May 21, 2023
An excellent collection of essays, still remarkably President despite being relatively dated, ranging from 1997 to 2014. There is a fair bit of repetition, as these are essays that deal with repeating themes and topics of this time period. Chomsky is exceptionally forceful in his persuasive style, your perspective of geopolitics, particularly as an American, is likely to take a beating while going through these essays.
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