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An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
Just in time for the elections, Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about “compassionate conservativism” and “the war on terror.” Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy—the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders’ tyranny.
First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against “the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire.” Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize—and apply—the scope of our power, exhorting US dockworkers to refuse to load materials war-bound, reservists to reject their call-ups, activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton, and citizens of other nations to collectively resist being deputized as janitor-soldiers to clear away the detritus of the US invasion.
Roy’s Guide to Empire also offers us sharp theoretical tools for understanding the New American Empire—a dangerous paradigm, Roy argues here, that is entirely distinct from the imperialism of the British or even the New World Order of George Bush, the elder. She examines how resistance movements build power, using examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the deplorable conditions many African Americans, in particular, must still confront.
With Roy as our “guide,” we may not be able to relax from the Sisyphean task of stopping the U.S. juggernaut, but at least we are assured that the struggle for global justice is fortified by Roy’s hard-edged brilliance.
First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against “the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire.” Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize—and apply—the scope of our power, exhorting US dockworkers to refuse to load materials war-bound, reservists to reject their call-ups, activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton, and citizens of other nations to collectively resist being deputized as janitor-soldiers to clear away the detritus of the US invasion.
Roy’s Guide to Empire also offers us sharp theoretical tools for understanding the New American Empire—a dangerous paradigm, Roy argues here, that is entirely distinct from the imperialism of the British or even the New World Order of George Bush, the elder. She examines how resistance movements build power, using examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the deplorable conditions many African Americans, in particular, must still confront.
With Roy as our “guide,” we may not be able to relax from the Sisyphean task of stopping the U.S. juggernaut, but at least we are assured that the struggle for global justice is fortified by Roy’s hard-edged brilliance.
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
117 people are currently reading
5122 people want to read
About the author
Arundhati Roy
99 books14.3k followersArundhati Roy is an Indian writer who is also an activist who focuses on issues related to social justice and economic inequality. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays.
For her work as an activist she received the Cultural Freedom Prize awarded by the Lannan Foundation in 2002.
For her work as an activist she received the Cultural Freedom Prize awarded by the Lannan Foundation in 2002.
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October 28, 2018
What is “Empire”? The elucidation of this question is what is attempted in this book by Arundhati Roy.
It is actually a collection of her essays, articles and speeches during the period 2002 – 2004, and not a book with a beginning, middle and end. But one theme runs through all these seemingly unconnected pieces – how the cancer of corporate power is choking our supposedly “free” world.
The essay “The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire” has been aptly chosen as the title of the book, for here Ms. Roy sets out to define empire in simple terms for the layperson.
This essay, along with many others are written with background of Bush Junior’s disastrous invasion of Iraq, to oust Saddam Hussein and uncover the “weapons of mass destruction”. Arundhati calls it out for what it is – the removal of a dictator who will no longer his master’s bidding, like the putting down of a hunting dog which has served its purpose. She reminds us, time and again, that it was America and its allies who propped Saddam up against Iran – the moment he disobeyed and attacked Kuwait, however, he became evil personified.
The destruction of Iraq (there is no milder word for it) has got one ulterior motive, however – give the exclusive right to “rebuild” Iraq to crony companies like Bechtel, Halliburton et al. And here is where the empire part comes in; because today’s empire is not a nation-centric but corporation-centric. These multinational corporations call all the shots and governments have to agree: because the political parties of the first world are bankrolled by them, and the poorer countries which are dependent on them must allow these economic behemoths to invade their world, otherwise they would be termed “investment unfriendly”. And we know what that would lead to – economic sanctions, ostracisation and in the worst case, invasion.
One of the myths of neoliberalism is development. Any kind of engineering and construction activity is seen as positive and any opposition to the same is considered “anti-development” in the normal case and in the worst case, “anti-national”. And on this theme, based on her interaction with the Narmada Bachao Andolan activists, Ms. Roy gives us a number of poignant essays and speeches about India’s dark underbelly: about the Dalits and Adivasis, the absolute have-nots who are considered collateral damage by the government as India strides forward on her agenda to dominate South Asia. Nobody with a heart can read through these essays (especially “The Road to Harsud”) without shedding a tear. And who is benefited? Naturally, the corporations, the World Bank, the IMF... the guys who hold the purse strings.
But a free country with a market economy and free press – isn’t that the ideal? We have been fed so many horror stories about communism over the years that we consider ourselves lucky to live in a free society. But who is this freedom benefitting?
For the bottom strata, pretty much the only freedom available is to starve and die.
Arundhati is also scathing in her criticism of the “free” press, echoing Noam Chomsky’s The Manufacture of Consent. The press is also controlled by mammon. So the reports we get are heavily skewed towards what the media barons want us to believe (in the post-truth world, this has now even degenerated to outright lies – though the author does not specifically mention it).
How to fight against this monster?
Arundhati Roy advocates continuous activism, spanning across national boundaries and political ideologies. And the fight should not only be symbolic, but should aim to hit empire where it hurts most – their profits. Boycotts, citizens’ protests, civil disobedience etc. hold the key. Ms. Roy cites the example of Gandhiji’s Dandi march time and again.
***
As I said in the beginning, this book lacks a coherent structure and there is repetition ad nauseum, so there is bound to be reader frustration. And I am a bit doubtful of how far her ideas of worldwide peaceful protests would work nowadays, given the fact that society has become highly stratified and many have slipped into violent ways of protest.
But for all that, the problems she highlighted are very valid – and she writes so lucidly and beautifully. For that alone, this book is worth a read.
It is actually a collection of her essays, articles and speeches during the period 2002 – 2004, and not a book with a beginning, middle and end. But one theme runs through all these seemingly unconnected pieces – how the cancer of corporate power is choking our supposedly “free” world.
The essay “The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire” has been aptly chosen as the title of the book, for here Ms. Roy sets out to define empire in simple terms for the layperson.
This essay, along with many others are written with background of Bush Junior’s disastrous invasion of Iraq, to oust Saddam Hussein and uncover the “weapons of mass destruction”. Arundhati calls it out for what it is – the removal of a dictator who will no longer his master’s bidding, like the putting down of a hunting dog which has served its purpose. She reminds us, time and again, that it was America and its allies who propped Saddam up against Iran – the moment he disobeyed and attacked Kuwait, however, he became evil personified.
The destruction of Iraq (there is no milder word for it) has got one ulterior motive, however – give the exclusive right to “rebuild” Iraq to crony companies like Bechtel, Halliburton et al. And here is where the empire part comes in; because today’s empire is not a nation-centric but corporation-centric. These multinational corporations call all the shots and governments have to agree: because the political parties of the first world are bankrolled by them, and the poorer countries which are dependent on them must allow these economic behemoths to invade their world, otherwise they would be termed “investment unfriendly”. And we know what that would lead to – economic sanctions, ostracisation and in the worst case, invasion.
One of the myths of neoliberalism is development. Any kind of engineering and construction activity is seen as positive and any opposition to the same is considered “anti-development” in the normal case and in the worst case, “anti-national”. And on this theme, based on her interaction with the Narmada Bachao Andolan activists, Ms. Roy gives us a number of poignant essays and speeches about India’s dark underbelly: about the Dalits and Adivasis, the absolute have-nots who are considered collateral damage by the government as India strides forward on her agenda to dominate South Asia. Nobody with a heart can read through these essays (especially “The Road to Harsud”) without shedding a tear. And who is benefited? Naturally, the corporations, the World Bank, the IMF... the guys who hold the purse strings.
But a free country with a market economy and free press – isn’t that the ideal? We have been fed so many horror stories about communism over the years that we consider ourselves lucky to live in a free society. But who is this freedom benefitting?
The crisis in modern democracy is a profound one. Free elections, free press, and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder.
For the bottom strata, pretty much the only freedom available is to starve and die.
Arundhati is also scathing in her criticism of the “free” press, echoing Noam Chomsky’s The Manufacture of Consent. The press is also controlled by mammon. So the reports we get are heavily skewed towards what the media barons want us to believe (in the post-truth world, this has now even degenerated to outright lies – though the author does not specifically mention it).
How to fight against this monster?
Arundhati Roy advocates continuous activism, spanning across national boundaries and political ideologies. And the fight should not only be symbolic, but should aim to hit empire where it hurts most – their profits. Boycotts, citizens’ protests, civil disobedience etc. hold the key. Ms. Roy cites the example of Gandhiji’s Dandi march time and again.
***
As I said in the beginning, this book lacks a coherent structure and there is repetition ad nauseum, so there is bound to be reader frustration. And I am a bit doubtful of how far her ideas of worldwide peaceful protests would work nowadays, given the fact that society has become highly stratified and many have slipped into violent ways of protest.
But for all that, the problems she highlighted are very valid – and she writes so lucidly and beautifully. For that alone, this book is worth a read.
July 2, 2021
Political eye
Bringing world and Indian politics and corporations to light.
Also the impact on the lives of affected.
Arundhati Roy is really inspiring.
Bringing world and Indian politics and corporations to light.
Also the impact on the lives of affected.
Arundhati Roy is really inspiring.
June 6, 2023
In my journey through Roy’s nonfiction, the ‘War on Terror’ has escalated into the invasion of Iraq (2003-2004)…
Highlights:
--“Peace is War: The Collateral Damage of Breaking News”: explores the key role of the corporate media in controlling “democracy”. “Peace is War” is meant to convey that Western “peacetime” hides many wars (esp. imperialist) in the global community. Roy also considers the polarization of crisis reporting, where news consumers enter an issue backwards (starting with the current event without the context).
--A more-detailed examination of how “free” media (market = one-dollar-one-vote) creates nuanced propaganda to curtail democracy: Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies.
--The fabulous Vijay Prashad (The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World) on imperialist media’s “ideological censorship”: https://youtu.be/6jKcsHv3c74
--“Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)”: concludes with a useful question of “what is to be done?” regarding confronting empire:
1) There cannot be a conventional military challenge. (Especially considering the US military’s Madman strategy risking annihilation: The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner and Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance).
2) Terror attacks legitimize the empire’s military reach (and vice versa). Preventing terror cannot be seen as a straightforward rational strategy by empire, given this symbiosis: The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump.
3) Imperialist sanctions (i.e. economic terrorism) need to be resisted, while resistance should also create “people’s sanctions” to target the economic underbelly of empire. (This can be seen during anti-apartheid South Africa, and today’s BDS).
4) Corporate media needs to be replaced with alternative media. Of course, we now see the mess between liberal media elites and Trumpian “fake news”; liberals reliant on corporate funding cannot be progressive, leaving a black hole for reactionaries to misdirect.
--“When the Saints Go Marching Out: The Strange Fate of Martin, Mohandas, and Mandela”: Roy considers how liberal capitalism has co-opted the legacies of MLK/Gandhi/Mandela.
--Of the three, MLK moved away from liberal reformism when he tied racism with capitalism and militarism (imperialist war on Vietnam): The Radical King.
--Roy elaborates the imperialism/race/class/caste contradictions of Gandhi in: The Doctor and the Saint: The Ambedkar - Gandhi Debate
--Finally, Mandela is contrasted with Steve Biko. Privatization and structural adjustment were favored over land redistribution, while reparations were said to discourage foreign investment and thus avoided.
--Vijay Prashad considers the crucial global solidarity in anti-colonial/anti-racist movements (connecting US Civil Rights to global decolonization): https://youtu.be/IfQ-zFaAOFk?t=45
Highlights:
--“Peace is War: The Collateral Damage of Breaking News”: explores the key role of the corporate media in controlling “democracy”. “Peace is War” is meant to convey that Western “peacetime” hides many wars (esp. imperialist) in the global community. Roy also considers the polarization of crisis reporting, where news consumers enter an issue backwards (starting with the current event without the context).
--A more-detailed examination of how “free” media (market = one-dollar-one-vote) creates nuanced propaganda to curtail democracy: Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies.
--The fabulous Vijay Prashad (The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World) on imperialist media’s “ideological censorship”: https://youtu.be/6jKcsHv3c74
--“Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)”: concludes with a useful question of “what is to be done?” regarding confronting empire:
1) There cannot be a conventional military challenge. (Especially considering the US military’s Madman strategy risking annihilation: The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner and Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance).
2) Terror attacks legitimize the empire’s military reach (and vice versa). Preventing terror cannot be seen as a straightforward rational strategy by empire, given this symbiosis: The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump.
3) Imperialist sanctions (i.e. economic terrorism) need to be resisted, while resistance should also create “people’s sanctions” to target the economic underbelly of empire. (This can be seen during anti-apartheid South Africa, and today’s BDS).
4) Corporate media needs to be replaced with alternative media. Of course, we now see the mess between liberal media elites and Trumpian “fake news”; liberals reliant on corporate funding cannot be progressive, leaving a black hole for reactionaries to misdirect.
--“When the Saints Go Marching Out: The Strange Fate of Martin, Mohandas, and Mandela”: Roy considers how liberal capitalism has co-opted the legacies of MLK/Gandhi/Mandela.
--Of the three, MLK moved away from liberal reformism when he tied racism with capitalism and militarism (imperialist war on Vietnam): The Radical King.
--Roy elaborates the imperialism/race/class/caste contradictions of Gandhi in: The Doctor and the Saint: The Ambedkar - Gandhi Debate
--Finally, Mandela is contrasted with Steve Biko. Privatization and structural adjustment were favored over land redistribution, while reparations were said to discourage foreign investment and thus avoided.
--Vijay Prashad considers the crucial global solidarity in anti-colonial/anti-racist movements (connecting US Civil Rights to global decolonization): https://youtu.be/IfQ-zFaAOFk?t=45
June 29, 2012
Roy begins by detailing what is democracy and how we can make it work:
The only way to make democracy real is to begin a process of constant questioning, permanent provocation, and continuous public conversation between citizens and the state.
On freedom:
It is important to remember that our freedoms, such as they are, were never given to us by any government, they have been wrested by us.
Roy elaborates how governments, nationalism, patriotism, democracy and NGOs are just spokes of the giant wheel of capitalism. On Iraq:
Operation Iraqi Freedom, George Bush assures us, is about returning Iraqi oil to the Iraqi people. That is, returning Iraqi oil to the Iraqi people via corporate multinationals. Like Shell, like Chevron, like Halliburton.
She talks about terrorism and how it has been privatized. Paraphrasing her (too lazy to find the exact quote this time), because the governments cannot have a monopoly on terror.
USA with their Patriot Act, India with their POTA are (were) just trying to kill any form of oppression, any form of dissent, any peaceful means of showing disagreement. Media is crisis driven, it will focus its pen and its camera where there is a crisis. Peaceful means find no form of promotion, thus people are turning to violence. We are thus left in a quandary, we can't support terror and are not with the government. So, what can we do? (Write reviews of course)
Oh, and in between all this, there's a really touching scene of the town of Harsud which was destroyed by the big dam on Narmada river. I wrote a brief sketch on it https://www.facebook.com/notes/desult...
PS: One thing which I hate about a collection of essays like this one is that the editing sucks. One can find not only similar arguments but even same paragraphs in multiple essays. So, minus one star for the editor.
February 16, 2009
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (Paperback)
by Arundhati Roy
I picked up this book while in India last fall. The hotel I was staying at in Jaipur was selling it in their gift shop. I started it while still traveling but didn't finish it until the beginning of the new year. Consisting of a collection of essays and lectures given on the topic of empire, verbalization, trade and resistance within the context of the developing world (especially focusing on India) it is filled with Roy's usual politically charged cries to action. Although I have always been aware of the immense sectarian challenges facing modern India this book was a timely accounting of the issues, given that while I was there there were a number of bombings and "terrorist" incidents some involving and perpetrated by Hindu nationalist ideologues. At times the arguments, facts and figures became repetitive as the general thrust of her polemic was often repeated from lecture to lecture. However, the strength of her conviction and the demand for justice cannot and should not be ignored. The most innovative (read; new to me) idea which was discussed was her critique of the rise of NGO's internationally. The phrase she uses is the "NGO-ization of resistance. While she makes clear that she is not demonizing the work of NGOs she does stress that NGOs can create and facilitate a false sense of engagement, hope and political resistance without any of the real impacts and gains of actual resistance..
by Arundhati Roy
I picked up this book while in India last fall. The hotel I was staying at in Jaipur was selling it in their gift shop. I started it while still traveling but didn't finish it until the beginning of the new year. Consisting of a collection of essays and lectures given on the topic of empire, verbalization, trade and resistance within the context of the developing world (especially focusing on India) it is filled with Roy's usual politically charged cries to action. Although I have always been aware of the immense sectarian challenges facing modern India this book was a timely accounting of the issues, given that while I was there there were a number of bombings and "terrorist" incidents some involving and perpetrated by Hindu nationalist ideologues. At times the arguments, facts and figures became repetitive as the general thrust of her polemic was often repeated from lecture to lecture. However, the strength of her conviction and the demand for justice cannot and should not be ignored. The most innovative (read; new to me) idea which was discussed was her critique of the rise of NGO's internationally. The phrase she uses is the "NGO-ization of resistance. While she makes clear that she is not demonizing the work of NGOs she does stress that NGOs can create and facilitate a false sense of engagement, hope and political resistance without any of the real impacts and gains of actual resistance..
August 22, 2024
What if I cry because of how much time has passed and how much has stayed the same. Actually it would be more productive to get angry. Anger can drive my actions and writing and fuel my hope for a better world.
Anyway Arundati Roy is an incredible writer, that's no surprise. This is the first non fiction I've read by her and it's excellent at getting her messages across. It's really disheartening to see how history is repeating itself with the Iraq war then and the Palestinian genocide now. It is heartning to see how despite that she still believes in the power of the people.
Anyway Arundati Roy is an incredible writer, that's no surprise. This is the first non fiction I've read by her and it's excellent at getting her messages across. It's really disheartening to see how history is repeating itself with the Iraq war then and the Palestinian genocide now. It is heartning to see how despite that she still believes in the power of the people.
June 15, 2012
Some of my favorite quotations:
"Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it?"
"Calling anyone who protests against the violation of their human and constitutional rights a terrorist can end up becoming a self-fulfilling accusation. When every avenue of nonviolent dissent is closed down, should we really be surprised that the forests are filling up with extremists, insurgents, and militants?"
"...for most people in the world, peace is war - a daily battle against hunger, thirst, and the violation of their dignity. Wars are often the end result of a flawed peace, a putative peace. And it is the flaws, the systemic flaws in what is normally considered to be "peace," that we ought to be writing about. We have to-at least some of us have to-become peace correspondents instead of war correspondents. We have to lose our terror of the mundane. We have to use our skills and imagination and our art, to re-create the rhythms of the endless crisis of normality, and in doing so, expose the policies and processes that make ordinary things-food, water, shelter, and dignity-such a distant dream for ordinary people."
"Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it?"
"Calling anyone who protests against the violation of their human and constitutional rights a terrorist can end up becoming a self-fulfilling accusation. When every avenue of nonviolent dissent is closed down, should we really be surprised that the forests are filling up with extremists, insurgents, and militants?"
"...for most people in the world, peace is war - a daily battle against hunger, thirst, and the violation of their dignity. Wars are often the end result of a flawed peace, a putative peace. And it is the flaws, the systemic flaws in what is normally considered to be "peace," that we ought to be writing about. We have to-at least some of us have to-become peace correspondents instead of war correspondents. We have to lose our terror of the mundane. We have to use our skills and imagination and our art, to re-create the rhythms of the endless crisis of normality, and in doing so, expose the policies and processes that make ordinary things-food, water, shelter, and dignity-such a distant dream for ordinary people."
March 5, 2013
At first I felt that Roy was simply rehashing other journalist musings concerning the rise of a type of neo-liberal imperialism that has taken over in the last 10 years, in particular after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. However, Roy's rhetorical skills are unsurpassable. I was not aware of her activist work, and her skill in culling evidence, displaying logic, and drawing in a listener of her speeches or reader of these speeches is insurmountable.
This is an excellent collection of speeches that Roy made around 2003 and 2004, and the entire set of essays can be read in 1 or 2 settings. For Western readers the strength of the neo-liberal state in India as described in a few of these essays would be particularly informative and insightful.
This is an excellent collection of speeches that Roy made around 2003 and 2004, and the entire set of essays can be read in 1 or 2 settings. For Western readers the strength of the neo-liberal state in India as described in a few of these essays would be particularly informative and insightful.
June 2, 2009
I so thought this would be better and more inspiring than it was. It was filled with stereotypes of Americans and Westerners (apparently none of us have read Chomsky or have a conscience). For such a poetic, insightful and nuanced writer to write essays and speeches of such limited subtlety was a huge disappointment. I know she has done great work as a humanist and activist, but this book felt like a waste of time to me as a reader.
February 27, 2013
وبسرعة هائلة اصبح في المفضلة. الكتابة جائت من الخيال
'Television tells us that Iraq has been 'liberated' and that Afganistan is well on its way to becoming a paradise for women-thanks to bush and blair, the twenty-first century's leading feminists'
'Television tells us that Iraq has been 'liberated' and that Afganistan is well on its way to becoming a paradise for women-thanks to bush and blair, the twenty-first century's leading feminists'
April 23, 2021
Again and again Roy asks powerful, paradigmatic questions: "Can we leave the bauxite in the mountain?" "How deep shall we dig?" She reminds us of this shared summit, this sacred peak worthy of endless struggle and ultimate sacrifice: human dignity—timeless, sacrosanct, and unmuddied by the idols of extraction/empire or corporate-nationalism. She quotes Dr. King who named the "triple, interrelated evils" of empire—racism, economic exploitation, and the problem of war—and demonstrates in case after case the continued relevance of his assessment.
A few notes/essential reminders/lessons from this text, which to me feels really more like a manual to revisit and a guide to thinking through what it means to live in Empire:
1. That crisis reportage polarizes, unmoors and isolates individual events from their complex history, and diverts our attention from the real crises of quiet dispossession, the creeping violation of dignity, and the "unrelenting daily grind of injustice" that, in addition to causing astronomical harm, slowly and endlessly distance oppressed and oppressor further and further from one another as "neo-liberalism drives its wedge between the rich and the poor" worldwide.
2. That for most people in our world, peace is war. How easily and how often do we forget? That structural violences (institutionalized inequities) create an "endless crisis of normality." Importantly, we must "lose our terror of the mundane." We must focus on the ordinary, the everyday: on food, water, shelter, dignity, and "the policies and processes that make [them]...such a distant dream for ordinary people."
3. That Empire is inherently paranoid, filled with a kind of nervous insecurity that stems from a covering-of-the-Truth and spills over into endless acts of paranoid aggression. That its obsession with defense (offense) stems from its unending (deserved) terror, its ultimate exposure, its artificially wrought sense of safety: what Roy calls the "soft underbelly" of an Empire whose "economic outposts are," of course, "exposed and vulnerable." What does true safety look like, and where is it rooted? Another indirect but crucial question that echoes through the text.
Often Roy's questions sat heavy on this reader's chest—especially now, reading her in this global moment. How can one possibly live in Empire and do no harm—let alone start to right its mindbending wrongs? But in oases of clarity I felt heartened by the text's call to grounded action, to attention and prayerful devotion to the ordinary, to rivers and clinics and schools and farms. Oh, may we see things as they are; may we Remember when we forget; may we rise gracefully to the challenge of this discernment; may we serve body and soul, body and soul; may we be forgiven as we carry on in the heart of empire.
A few notes/essential reminders/lessons from this text, which to me feels really more like a manual to revisit and a guide to thinking through what it means to live in Empire:
1. That crisis reportage polarizes, unmoors and isolates individual events from their complex history, and diverts our attention from the real crises of quiet dispossession, the creeping violation of dignity, and the "unrelenting daily grind of injustice" that, in addition to causing astronomical harm, slowly and endlessly distance oppressed and oppressor further and further from one another as "neo-liberalism drives its wedge between the rich and the poor" worldwide.
2. That for most people in our world, peace is war. How easily and how often do we forget? That structural violences (institutionalized inequities) create an "endless crisis of normality." Importantly, we must "lose our terror of the mundane." We must focus on the ordinary, the everyday: on food, water, shelter, dignity, and "the policies and processes that make [them]...such a distant dream for ordinary people."
3. That Empire is inherently paranoid, filled with a kind of nervous insecurity that stems from a covering-of-the-Truth and spills over into endless acts of paranoid aggression. That its obsession with defense (offense) stems from its unending (deserved) terror, its ultimate exposure, its artificially wrought sense of safety: what Roy calls the "soft underbelly" of an Empire whose "economic outposts are," of course, "exposed and vulnerable." What does true safety look like, and where is it rooted? Another indirect but crucial question that echoes through the text.
Often Roy's questions sat heavy on this reader's chest—especially now, reading her in this global moment. How can one possibly live in Empire and do no harm—let alone start to right its mindbending wrongs? But in oases of clarity I felt heartened by the text's call to grounded action, to attention and prayerful devotion to the ordinary, to rivers and clinics and schools and farms. Oh, may we see things as they are; may we Remember when we forget; may we rise gracefully to the challenge of this discernment; may we serve body and soul, body and soul; may we be forgiven as we carry on in the heart of empire.
November 10, 2024
I’ve heard a few comparisons of this most recent election to the reelection of Bush in 2004. Given that I was six at the time, reading these essays have been an illuminating and at times prophetic education on the political culture of that time (all essays were written from 2002-2004).
Roy is a powerful example of a mind that can incisively metamorphosize anger and anguish into analysis and critique. She deserves her place among the great radical thinkers. Some essays were repetitive, though I fault the publisher more for this. As someone who needed the lesson, I was still sat.
Also it’s a good reminder not to view Bush with nostalgic benevolence just because of what we have on our plate today. Read for insight on the worlds biggest democracy (India) and the worlds most powerful democracy (US) and how absurd it is we call them democracies at all.
Roy is a powerful example of a mind that can incisively metamorphosize anger and anguish into analysis and critique. She deserves her place among the great radical thinkers. Some essays were repetitive, though I fault the publisher more for this. As someone who needed the lesson, I was still sat.
Also it’s a good reminder not to view Bush with nostalgic benevolence just because of what we have on our plate today. Read for insight on the worlds biggest democracy (India) and the worlds most powerful democracy (US) and how absurd it is we call them democracies at all.
January 2, 2019
arundhati roy is such an excellent rhetorician!!! despite some issues i found with her analysis of the world crises she investigates, i found her thinking really clarifying. tbh ashamed about my lack of knowledge about the iraq war & all the wars we have lived through. i can't believe i once thought we were living in peace time.
Read
November 7, 2024didn’t intend to read this this week, it was very helpful in a lot of ways. “the only way to make democracy real is to begin a process of constant questioning, permanent provocation, and continuous public conversation between citizens and the state. that conversation is quite different from the conversation between political parties.”
Read
January 1, 2026She is literally a genius and her essays on American imperialism should be required reading in this country!!!!
May 5, 2015
“I think the Iraqi people are suffering and we should liberate them.” That’s what I said early in the invasion of Iraq. I was 15.
Surprisingly, many people who supported the war didn't have the excuse of being 15. There were people who were old enough to remember Baghdad as “the Paris of the Middle East,” or U.S. support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, or even the brutal U.N. economic sanctions following the Gulf War that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths from malnutrition and lack of medicine. Just about all I knew about Iraq prior to the invasion came from a sketch on a re-run of Saturday Night Live where president Clinton had a three way phone conversation with Saddam Hussein and Monica Lewinsky.
Roy’s 2004 collection of essays covers the hypocrisy of America’s invasion of Iraq, and the deceitfulness of India’s aggression against anti-government activist. The connecting factor here is how corporate-owned media acts as the government’s mouthpiece to convince the general public that’s what’s good “economic investment” or “spreading democracy” is universally beneficial, even when creating “economic investment” means displacing millions or “spreading democracy” means destroying the infrastructure and food production of a sovereign nation.
This is how we get a situation where, as in 2004, 42% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for 9/11 and 55% believed he had ties to Al-Qaeda. Or, in India, why the middle class remains complacent while the government demonizes tribal peoples trying to survive as landless farmers while land is auctioned off to international investors.
Roy rightly asserts that though online media can serve to dispel the press’s myths, it isn't able to change the crisis-driven nature of the news, where once the camera’s move on, people’s suffering disappears from public consciousness. (When was the last time we heard of Iraq’s reconstruction?) Still, she does still have hope for humanity, and for real democracy in civil disobedience that directly strikes at the economic order--as in Gandhi's salt marches that directly broke British trade law, not just weekend protests--which is a message so many activist need.
That being said, I noticed a few major factual answers. There is no evidence that Gulf War Syndrome is caused by depleted uranium, or even that it has any physical cause; it is mostly likely a psychosomatic reaction to the horrors of war. She also claims that Kennedy orchestrated the 1963 coup in Iraq that lead the rise of the Baath party and Saddam Hussein. While the CIA knew about the coup beforehand, there is no evidence that they were directly involved in it in any way, which isn't to say there aren't plenty of other coups, in Iran for instance, armed and orchestrated by the American government. And the United States certainly did support Saddam Hussein’s war crimes, providing him with covert intelligence even knowing he was using chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War. We know these things because we have declassified documents attesting them. Let’s stick to the facts so that our political enemies can’t use our mistakes to discredit us, unless you want to play Donald Rumsfeld, “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.”
I would love to recommend this book, but I would warn to be double check her sources.
Surprisingly, many people who supported the war didn't have the excuse of being 15. There were people who were old enough to remember Baghdad as “the Paris of the Middle East,” or U.S. support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, or even the brutal U.N. economic sanctions following the Gulf War that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths from malnutrition and lack of medicine. Just about all I knew about Iraq prior to the invasion came from a sketch on a re-run of Saturday Night Live where president Clinton had a three way phone conversation with Saddam Hussein and Monica Lewinsky.
Roy’s 2004 collection of essays covers the hypocrisy of America’s invasion of Iraq, and the deceitfulness of India’s aggression against anti-government activist. The connecting factor here is how corporate-owned media acts as the government’s mouthpiece to convince the general public that’s what’s good “economic investment” or “spreading democracy” is universally beneficial, even when creating “economic investment” means displacing millions or “spreading democracy” means destroying the infrastructure and food production of a sovereign nation.
This is how we get a situation where, as in 2004, 42% of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for 9/11 and 55% believed he had ties to Al-Qaeda. Or, in India, why the middle class remains complacent while the government demonizes tribal peoples trying to survive as landless farmers while land is auctioned off to international investors.
Roy rightly asserts that though online media can serve to dispel the press’s myths, it isn't able to change the crisis-driven nature of the news, where once the camera’s move on, people’s suffering disappears from public consciousness. (When was the last time we heard of Iraq’s reconstruction?) Still, she does still have hope for humanity, and for real democracy in civil disobedience that directly strikes at the economic order--as in Gandhi's salt marches that directly broke British trade law, not just weekend protests--which is a message so many activist need.
That being said, I noticed a few major factual answers. There is no evidence that Gulf War Syndrome is caused by depleted uranium, or even that it has any physical cause; it is mostly likely a psychosomatic reaction to the horrors of war. She also claims that Kennedy orchestrated the 1963 coup in Iraq that lead the rise of the Baath party and Saddam Hussein. While the CIA knew about the coup beforehand, there is no evidence that they were directly involved in it in any way, which isn't to say there aren't plenty of other coups, in Iran for instance, armed and orchestrated by the American government. And the United States certainly did support Saddam Hussein’s war crimes, providing him with covert intelligence even knowing he was using chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War. We know these things because we have declassified documents attesting them. Let’s stick to the facts so that our political enemies can’t use our mistakes to discredit us, unless you want to play Donald Rumsfeld, “The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.”
I would love to recommend this book, but I would warn to be double check her sources.
April 24, 2014
In this book, Roy talks about how the Empire (US) manages to control other countries for its profit, no matter what rights are trampled and lives are lost (in wars and smaller conflicts). Iraq is used as an example, and this is still fairly fresh though the book is 10 years old now. Iraq is still far from being messy even though war isn't really there now.
There is also useful insight in India's hair-rising wrongs - how little of it we read in our news, but then there's plenty of other countries whose similar awful things are never heard much, no doubt about it. I really do feel bad for the oppressed there, cornered pretty much by the majority.
Roy's writing style is on point, doesn't wander and have plenty of sentences to underline. Nothing too long or complicated so that one would feel accomplished for understanding what was written (something that happens to me sometimes with some writers *cough*).
After reading about all the wrongs that the Empire (US) and other goverments (in this case India is used as another example), Roy still manages to write in her optimism and hopes for the future, however shaky (suggesting boycotts and refusing to serve as some actions; don't know how effective they are but at least one could say to have tried and not done anything). This makes the book less heavy and gloomy.
There is also useful insight in India's hair-rising wrongs - how little of it we read in our news, but then there's plenty of other countries whose similar awful things are never heard much, no doubt about it. I really do feel bad for the oppressed there, cornered pretty much by the majority.
Roy's writing style is on point, doesn't wander and have plenty of sentences to underline. Nothing too long or complicated so that one would feel accomplished for understanding what was written (something that happens to me sometimes with some writers *cough*).
After reading about all the wrongs that the Empire (US) and other goverments (in this case India is used as another example), Roy still manages to write in her optimism and hopes for the future, however shaky (suggesting boycotts and refusing to serve as some actions; don't know how effective they are but at least one could say to have tried and not done anything). This makes the book less heavy and gloomy.
February 17, 2014
"For reasons I do not fully understand, fiction dances out of me. Non-fiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to every morning." the celebrated author of The God of Small Things States So.
An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire is a well constructed essay collection written between 2002 and 2004 — most of them from those published in newspapers.
Roy reveals her passion for writing through 14 chapters. She dissects the situation at Iraq and the Middle East and about those who struggles for their daily bread and existence in their mother land. The satirical writing makes the book an interesting piece. Even then a frustrated Writer pops up through out the book.
Roy illustrates the power of common man thus, motivating them to speak out and act for their human rights. “History is giving you the chance,” she writes.
Come September is my favorite among 14.
An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire is a well constructed essay collection written between 2002 and 2004 — most of them from those published in newspapers.
Roy reveals her passion for writing through 14 chapters. She dissects the situation at Iraq and the Middle East and about those who struggles for their daily bread and existence in their mother land. The satirical writing makes the book an interesting piece. Even then a frustrated Writer pops up through out the book.
Roy illustrates the power of common man thus, motivating them to speak out and act for their human rights. “History is giving you the chance,” she writes.
Come September is my favorite among 14.
March 1, 2008
This book is Noam Chomsky except funny and interesting instead of horribly dry. Highly recommended.
"Modern democracies have been around for long enough for neo-liberal capitalists to learn how to subvert them. They have mastered the technique of infiltrating the instruments of democracy-- the 'independent' judiciary, the 'free' press, the parliment-- and molding them to their purpose. The project of corporate globalization has cracked the code. Free elections, a free press, and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available ton sale to the highest bidder."
"Modern democracies have been around for long enough for neo-liberal capitalists to learn how to subvert them. They have mastered the technique of infiltrating the instruments of democracy-- the 'independent' judiciary, the 'free' press, the parliment-- and molding them to their purpose. The project of corporate globalization has cracked the code. Free elections, a free press, and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available ton sale to the highest bidder."
June 7, 2009
I haven't actually read this book. I started the book; I was looking forward to it. The author wrote The God of Small Things and won a Booker prize. I had to put the book down when it made the following analysis on page 81 on how to resist "empire" meaning - I guess the U.S.
It said,"The good news is we're not doing too badly. There have been major victories. Here in Latin America you have had so many...In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is holding on despite the U.S. Government's best efforts."
It said,"The good news is we're not doing too badly. There have been major victories. Here in Latin America you have had so many...In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez is holding on despite the U.S. Government's best efforts."
August 27, 2017
Evidently the "ordinary person" referred to in the title must be hit over the head repeatedly with the same tired rants against neoliberalism and far right radicalism to be properly introduced to empire. Needlessly repetitive and insufficiently nuanced for anyone with more than a passing knowledge of international politics and development. Credit where credit is due, though - Roy can rage against the machine like no one else. The energy and passion in her arguments are almost tangible; I just wish they were a little more constructive.
October 21, 2024
Really good read. It's focused on the early 2000s "War on Terror" era of neoliberal imperialism. It's helpful to remember that time. I also appreciated how this book bridged from theories of resistance to specific tactics.
December 14, 2010
Too liberal; too preachy.
November 21, 2023
Roy's observations and analyses are maddening and inspiring. Leveling Iraq for corporate profits - maddening. But tens of thousands of Americans demonstrating opposition - inspiring. She covers both. For me the most interesting parts are about India, a gigantic, multiethnic country I know little about except that it is yet another country that has suffered from the 19th-20th century colonialist playbook of divide, skedaddle, and then hope for the best. Does that even ever work? So I liked How Deep Shall We Dig? with her discussion of what's under the mosque - a temple - but then what's under that? It's so Middle East. But what to do, as she questions the politics of vengeance that targets only the vulnerable. "Fearlessly, but nonviolently, we must disable the working parts of this machine that is consuming us."
October 25, 2021
کتاب کا اردو میں ترجمہ پڑھا، اس لئے مناسب ہے کہ اردو میں بات کی جائے۔
اگر چہ کتاب میں براہ راست اس جناب کم ہی اشارہ کیا گیا ہے کہ ایک عام آدمی کا تصور ریاست کیا ہے تاہم عراق پر امریکہ کا حملہ، بڑے ممالک کا چھوٹے ریاست کے بارے میں روئے اور انڈین ریاست کا اپنے باشندوں سے روئے اس موضوع پر کافی روشنی پڑتی ہے۔
آج کے دور کے کنٹرولڈ جمہوریت میں ایک آدمی کا ریاست کے فیصلوں میں اختیار کم سے کم ہوتا جا رہائے، اور یہی بات روئے نے اس کتاب میں سمجھانے کی کوشش کی ہے۔
اگر چہ کتاب میں براہ راست اس جناب کم ہی اشارہ کیا گیا ہے کہ ایک عام آدمی کا تصور ریاست کیا ہے تاہم عراق پر امریکہ کا حملہ، بڑے ممالک کا چھوٹے ریاست کے بارے میں روئے اور انڈین ریاست کا اپنے باشندوں سے روئے اس موضوع پر کافی روشنی پڑتی ہے۔
آج کے دور کے کنٹرولڈ جمہوریت میں ایک آدمی کا ریاست کے فیصلوں میں اختیار کم سے کم ہوتا جا رہائے، اور یہی بات روئے نے اس کتاب میں سمجھانے کی کوشش کی ہے۔
December 27, 2025
A good reminder of the horrors of the Bush era (which apparently we need, considering the current collective amnesia). These essays are almost all transcripts of speeches and it shows, but no shame that great oratory doesn't always make a great read. She makes a good case for what electoral politics can do for us (not much) and civil disobedience, which tbh I had forgotten what it entails.
Don't read "When the Saints Go Marching Out" - ooph terrible take not worth repeating here.
Don't read "When the Saints Go Marching Out" - ooph terrible take not worth repeating here.
February 9, 2025
This is a collection of speeches and essays from 2002-2003 but it's horrifying how relevant it is today. Should be in essential reading lists of all college courses and essential reading lists for life in the 21st century tbh.
December 26, 2019
“An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire" by Arundhati Roy
Phenomenal insight, like being hit with a ‘truth’ slap!
E.g.
"The Draft Is About White People
Sending Black People To Fight
Yellow People to Protect The Country
They Stole From The Red People"
Stokely Carmichael, at a massive anti-war demonstration in Manhattan, 15th April 1967, (page 142)
..
Also by Roy:
“Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it?”
“The US empire rests on a grisly foundation: the massacre of millions of indigenous people, the stealing of their lands and, following this, the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of black people from Africa to work that land. Thousands died on the seas while they were being shipped like caged cattle between continents.
'Stolen from Africa, brought to America' - Bob Marley's 'Buffalo Soldier' contains a whole universe of unspeakable sadness.”
“It's odd how those who dismiss the peace movement as Utopian proffer the most absurdly dreamy reasons for war.”
“The war against terror is not really about terror. It's about a superpower's self-destructive impulse toward supremacy, stranglehold, global hegemony.”
“Speaking for myself, I am no flag waver, no patriot, and I am fully aware that venality, brutality, and hypocrisy are imprinted on the leaden soul of every state. But when a country ceases to be merely a country and becomes an empire, then the scale of operations changes dramatically. So may I clarify that tonight I speak as a subject of the American empire? I speak as a slave who presumes to criticize her king.”
“It is a myth that the free market breaks down national barriers. The free market does not threaten national sovereignty, it undermines democracy. As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying. To push through their 'sweetheart deals', to corporatize the crops we grow, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the dreams we dream, corporate globalization needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies. Corporate globalization - or shall we call by its name? Imperialism - needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs courts that pretend to dispense justice.
Meanwhile, the countries of the north harden their borders and stockpile weapons of mass destruction. Afterall, they have to make sure that it is only money, goods, patents, and services that are globalized. Not a respect for human rights. Not international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and nuclear weapons or greenhouse gas emissions or climate change or - God forbid - justice.
So this - all this - is Empire. This loyal confederation, this obscene accumulation of power, this greatly increased distance between those who make the decisions and those who have to suffer them.
Our fight, our goal, our vision of another world must be to eliminate that distance. So how do we resist Empire?”
“When we speak of confronting Empire, we need to identify what Empire means. Does it mean the US government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that?”
“How has the United States survived its terrible past and emerged smelling so sweet? Not by owning up to it, not by making reparations, not by apologizing to black Americans or native Americans, and certainly not by changing its ways (it exports its cruelties now). Like most other countries, the United States has rewritten its history. But what sets the United States apart from other countries, and puts it ahead in the race, is that it has enlisted the services of the most powerful, most successful publicity firm in the world: Hollywood.”
― Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
“Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes.”
“And now this talk of bringing the UN back into the picture.
But that old UN girl - it turns out that she just ain't what she was cracked up to be. She's been demoted (although she retains her high salary). Now she's the world's janitor. She's the Filipino cleaning lady, the Indian jamardini, the postal bride from Thailand, the Mexican household help, the Jamaican au pair. She's employed to clean other people's shit. She's used and abused at will.”
“When the sun sets on the American empire, as it will, as it must, Noam Chomsky's work will survive. It will point a cool incriminating finger at a merciless Machiavellian empire as cruel, self-righteous and hypocritical as the ones it has replaced. (The only difference is that it is armed with technology that can visit the kind of devastation on the world that history has never known, and the human race cannot begin to imagine.)”
“Democracy has become Empire's euphemism for neo-liberal capitalism.”
“Argentina & Iraq have been decimated by the same process with different weapons; an IMF cheque and cruise missiles.”
“Why should propaganda be the exclusive preserve of the Western media? Just because they do it better?”
“For the South African White minority, neo-liberalism is apartheid with a clean conscience, called Democracy.”
…
So how do we resist “Empire”? The good news is that we’re not doing too badly. There have been major victories. Here in Latin America you have had so many–in Bolivia, you have Cochabamba. In Peru, there was the uprising in Arequipa. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez is holding on, despite the US government’s best efforts. And the world’s gaze is on the people of Argentina, who are trying to refashion a country from the ashes of the havoc wrought by the IMF.
In India the movement against corporate globalization is gathering momentum and is poised to become the only real political force to counter religious fascism. As for corporate globalization’s glittering ambassadors–Enron, Bechtel, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen–where were they last year, and where are they now? And of course here in Brazil we must ask, Who was the president last year, and Who is it now?
Still, many of us have dark moments of hopelessness and despair. We know that under the spreading canopy of the War Against Terrorism, the men in suits are hard at work. While bombs rain down on us, and cruise missiles skid across the skies, we know that contracts are being signed, patents are being registered, oil pipelines are being laid, natural resources are being plundered, water is being privatized and George Bush is planning to go to war against Iraq.
If we look at this conflict as a straightforward eyeball to eyeball confrontation between Empire and those of us who are resisting it, it might seem that we are losing. But there is another way of looking at it. We, all of us gathered here, have, each in our own way, laid siege to Empire. We may not have stopped it in its tracks–yet–but we have stripped it down. We have made it drop its mask. We have forced it into the open. It now stands before us on the world’s stage in all its brutish, iniquitous nakedness.
Empire may well go to war, but it’s out in the open now–too ugly to behold its own reflection. Too ugly even to rally its own people. It won’t be long before the majority of American people become our allies. In Washington this January, a quarter of a million people marched against the war on Iraq. Each month the protest is gathering momentum.
Before September 11, 2001, America had a secret history. Secret especially from its own people. But now America’s secrets are history, and its history is public knowledge. It’s street talk. Today, we know that every argument that is being used to escalate the war against Iraq is a lie–the most ludicrous of them being the US government’s deep commitment to bring democracy to Iraq. Killing people to save them from dictatorship or ideological corruption is, of course, an old US government sport. Here in Latin America, you know that better than most.
Nobody doubts that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator, a murderer (whose worst excesses were supported by the governments of the United States and Britain). There’s no doubt that Iraqis would be better off without him. But then, the whole world would be better off without a certain Mr. Bush. In fact, he is far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. So, should we bomb Bush out of the White House?
It’s more than clear that Bush is determined to go to war against Iraq, regardless of the facts–and regardless of international public opinion. In its recruitment drive for allies, the United States is prepared to invent facts. The charade with weapons inspectors is the US government’s offensive, insulting concession to some twisted form of international etiquette. It’s like leaving the “doggie door” open for last-minute “allies” or maybe the United Nations to crawl through. But for all intents and purposes, the New War against Iraq has begun.
What can we do? We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening roar. We can turn the war on Iraq into a fishbowl of the US government’s excesses. We can expose George Bush and Tony Blair–and their allies–for the cowardly baby killers, water poisoners and pusillanimous long-distance bombers that they are. We can reinvent civil disobedience in a million different ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of becoming a collective pain in the ass. When George Bush says, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” we can say “No thank you.” We can let him know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs.
Our strategy should be not only to confront empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness–and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling–their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
Phenomenal insight, like being hit with a ‘truth’ slap!
E.g.
"The Draft Is About White People
Sending Black People To Fight
Yellow People to Protect The Country
They Stole From The Red People"
Stokely Carmichael, at a massive anti-war demonstration in Manhattan, 15th April 1967, (page 142)
..
Also by Roy:
“Debating Imperialism is a bit like debating the pros and cons of rape. What can we say? That we really miss it?”
“The US empire rests on a grisly foundation: the massacre of millions of indigenous people, the stealing of their lands and, following this, the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of black people from Africa to work that land. Thousands died on the seas while they were being shipped like caged cattle between continents.
'Stolen from Africa, brought to America' - Bob Marley's 'Buffalo Soldier' contains a whole universe of unspeakable sadness.”
“It's odd how those who dismiss the peace movement as Utopian proffer the most absurdly dreamy reasons for war.”
“The war against terror is not really about terror. It's about a superpower's self-destructive impulse toward supremacy, stranglehold, global hegemony.”
“Speaking for myself, I am no flag waver, no patriot, and I am fully aware that venality, brutality, and hypocrisy are imprinted on the leaden soul of every state. But when a country ceases to be merely a country and becomes an empire, then the scale of operations changes dramatically. So may I clarify that tonight I speak as a subject of the American empire? I speak as a slave who presumes to criticize her king.”
“It is a myth that the free market breaks down national barriers. The free market does not threaten national sovereignty, it undermines democracy. As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying. To push through their 'sweetheart deals', to corporatize the crops we grow, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the dreams we dream, corporate globalization needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies. Corporate globalization - or shall we call by its name? Imperialism - needs a press that pretends to be free. It needs courts that pretend to dispense justice.
Meanwhile, the countries of the north harden their borders and stockpile weapons of mass destruction. Afterall, they have to make sure that it is only money, goods, patents, and services that are globalized. Not a respect for human rights. Not international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and nuclear weapons or greenhouse gas emissions or climate change or - God forbid - justice.
So this - all this - is Empire. This loyal confederation, this obscene accumulation of power, this greatly increased distance between those who make the decisions and those who have to suffer them.
Our fight, our goal, our vision of another world must be to eliminate that distance. So how do we resist Empire?”
“When we speak of confronting Empire, we need to identify what Empire means. Does it mean the US government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that?”
“How has the United States survived its terrible past and emerged smelling so sweet? Not by owning up to it, not by making reparations, not by apologizing to black Americans or native Americans, and certainly not by changing its ways (it exports its cruelties now). Like most other countries, the United States has rewritten its history. But what sets the United States apart from other countries, and puts it ahead in the race, is that it has enlisted the services of the most powerful, most successful publicity firm in the world: Hollywood.”
― Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
“Democracy is the Free World's whore, willing to dress up, dress down, willing to satisfy a whole range of tastes.”
“And now this talk of bringing the UN back into the picture.
But that old UN girl - it turns out that she just ain't what she was cracked up to be. She's been demoted (although she retains her high salary). Now she's the world's janitor. She's the Filipino cleaning lady, the Indian jamardini, the postal bride from Thailand, the Mexican household help, the Jamaican au pair. She's employed to clean other people's shit. She's used and abused at will.”
“When the sun sets on the American empire, as it will, as it must, Noam Chomsky's work will survive. It will point a cool incriminating finger at a merciless Machiavellian empire as cruel, self-righteous and hypocritical as the ones it has replaced. (The only difference is that it is armed with technology that can visit the kind of devastation on the world that history has never known, and the human race cannot begin to imagine.)”
“Democracy has become Empire's euphemism for neo-liberal capitalism.”
“Argentina & Iraq have been decimated by the same process with different weapons; an IMF cheque and cruise missiles.”
“Why should propaganda be the exclusive preserve of the Western media? Just because they do it better?”
“For the South African White minority, neo-liberalism is apartheid with a clean conscience, called Democracy.”
…
So how do we resist “Empire”? The good news is that we’re not doing too badly. There have been major victories. Here in Latin America you have had so many–in Bolivia, you have Cochabamba. In Peru, there was the uprising in Arequipa. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez is holding on, despite the US government’s best efforts. And the world’s gaze is on the people of Argentina, who are trying to refashion a country from the ashes of the havoc wrought by the IMF.
In India the movement against corporate globalization is gathering momentum and is poised to become the only real political force to counter religious fascism. As for corporate globalization’s glittering ambassadors–Enron, Bechtel, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen–where were they last year, and where are they now? And of course here in Brazil we must ask, Who was the president last year, and Who is it now?
Still, many of us have dark moments of hopelessness and despair. We know that under the spreading canopy of the War Against Terrorism, the men in suits are hard at work. While bombs rain down on us, and cruise missiles skid across the skies, we know that contracts are being signed, patents are being registered, oil pipelines are being laid, natural resources are being plundered, water is being privatized and George Bush is planning to go to war against Iraq.
If we look at this conflict as a straightforward eyeball to eyeball confrontation between Empire and those of us who are resisting it, it might seem that we are losing. But there is another way of looking at it. We, all of us gathered here, have, each in our own way, laid siege to Empire. We may not have stopped it in its tracks–yet–but we have stripped it down. We have made it drop its mask. We have forced it into the open. It now stands before us on the world’s stage in all its brutish, iniquitous nakedness.
Empire may well go to war, but it’s out in the open now–too ugly to behold its own reflection. Too ugly even to rally its own people. It won’t be long before the majority of American people become our allies. In Washington this January, a quarter of a million people marched against the war on Iraq. Each month the protest is gathering momentum.
Before September 11, 2001, America had a secret history. Secret especially from its own people. But now America’s secrets are history, and its history is public knowledge. It’s street talk. Today, we know that every argument that is being used to escalate the war against Iraq is a lie–the most ludicrous of them being the US government’s deep commitment to bring democracy to Iraq. Killing people to save them from dictatorship or ideological corruption is, of course, an old US government sport. Here in Latin America, you know that better than most.
Nobody doubts that Saddam Hussein is a ruthless dictator, a murderer (whose worst excesses were supported by the governments of the United States and Britain). There’s no doubt that Iraqis would be better off without him. But then, the whole world would be better off without a certain Mr. Bush. In fact, he is far more dangerous than Saddam Hussein. So, should we bomb Bush out of the White House?
It’s more than clear that Bush is determined to go to war against Iraq, regardless of the facts–and regardless of international public opinion. In its recruitment drive for allies, the United States is prepared to invent facts. The charade with weapons inspectors is the US government’s offensive, insulting concession to some twisted form of international etiquette. It’s like leaving the “doggie door” open for last-minute “allies” or maybe the United Nations to crawl through. But for all intents and purposes, the New War against Iraq has begun.
What can we do? We can hone our memory, we can learn from our history. We can continue to build public opinion until it becomes a deafening roar. We can turn the war on Iraq into a fishbowl of the US government’s excesses. We can expose George Bush and Tony Blair–and their allies–for the cowardly baby killers, water poisoners and pusillanimous long-distance bombers that they are. We can reinvent civil disobedience in a million different ways. In other words, we can come up with a million ways of becoming a collective pain in the ass. When George Bush says, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” we can say “No thank you.” We can let him know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs.
Our strategy should be not only to confront empire but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness–and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling–their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.
Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.
June 24, 2021
If there is one book I have made a good decision in reading, it was this. I would recommend this book for anyone who knows how to read. A collection of Arundhati Roy's speeches, essays and articles from the years 2002-2004, it struck me painfully how relevant the contents of her writings still are in 2019. The crux of the book revolves around her formulating an understanding of the global American "Empire" in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion and how corporate globalisation and a right-wing Hindu fascist government in India is doing more harm than good. Almost twenty years later, with the present-day news unfolding more horrendous moves by the government, I can only wince every time Roy closes out with an optimistic outlook.
What with the highest number of Internet blackouts and curfews imposed for peaceful protests in any democratic country in 2019, India hasn't made much progress in terms of human rights in the last 20 years it seems. The man who was responsible for a state-sponsored massacre of Muslims in Gujarat is today the Prime Minister of the country. Assam and the rest of the North-Eastern states are worse off than ever, the rights of Dalits, Adivasis and indigenous populations continue to be threatened with the looming CAA-NRC, and finally, India has become a colonial state thanks to its forceful occupation of Kashmir. None of the scenarios Roy has mentioned have a happy ending. Moreover, it fills me with dread on the realisation that if her warnings went unheard twenty years back, what guarantee do we have that the BJP won't be back someday with a vengeance (if we do manage to root them out this time)?
If anything, I would want people to engage with texts like this more than ever. If we are to at all live up to the ideals of the Constitution, if we are to see any semblance of peace and progression from our violence-ridden politics, we need to see our political parties for what they are, move past their divisive politics and call for a systemic change. If we have been stuck in a time loop for the last twenty years and can't seem to make any progress, it is because we allow ourselves to be embroiled in petty communal hatred. Roy says our brightest hope is in mass resistance. I agree.
There are so many gems in this book, it was hard for me to pick them. It gets a gold star. Please read.
If you liked my review, do feel free to stop by my Instagram here!
What with the highest number of Internet blackouts and curfews imposed for peaceful protests in any democratic country in 2019, India hasn't made much progress in terms of human rights in the last 20 years it seems. The man who was responsible for a state-sponsored massacre of Muslims in Gujarat is today the Prime Minister of the country. Assam and the rest of the North-Eastern states are worse off than ever, the rights of Dalits, Adivasis and indigenous populations continue to be threatened with the looming CAA-NRC, and finally, India has become a colonial state thanks to its forceful occupation of Kashmir. None of the scenarios Roy has mentioned have a happy ending. Moreover, it fills me with dread on the realisation that if her warnings went unheard twenty years back, what guarantee do we have that the BJP won't be back someday with a vengeance (if we do manage to root them out this time)?
If anything, I would want people to engage with texts like this more than ever. If we are to at all live up to the ideals of the Constitution, if we are to see any semblance of peace and progression from our violence-ridden politics, we need to see our political parties for what they are, move past their divisive politics and call for a systemic change. If we have been stuck in a time loop for the last twenty years and can't seem to make any progress, it is because we allow ourselves to be embroiled in petty communal hatred. Roy says our brightest hope is in mass resistance. I agree.
There are so many gems in this book, it was hard for me to pick them. It gets a gold star. Please read.
If you liked my review, do feel free to stop by my Instagram here!
December 14, 2016
To describe this book in two words.. Powerful work. Arundhati Roy's writing style is so sharp and compelling that, at times it'll make your blood boil reading about the atrocities perpetrated by governments and corporations against the powerless and economically-weaker sections of the society. In this book, Ms. Roy tackles the issue of destruction of innocent lives wrought by neoliberalism, neoimperialism and corporate globalization. How it has become a daily battle for the poor man to obtain the very basic necessities of a simple life -- water, food, a home and some semblance of dignity -- while the vultures called corporations plunder away the resources of the people. And Roy backs all her statements with facts from credible sources.
A must read for anybody having a little empathy for the suffering of common people due to the greed of a few powerful evil men, across the world. Highly recommended.
A must read for anybody having a little empathy for the suffering of common people due to the greed of a few powerful evil men, across the world. Highly recommended.
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