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Global Discontents

Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

This program is read by the authors

In a compelling new set of
interviews, Noam Chomsky's Global Discontents identifies the "dry kindling" of discontent around the world that could soon catch fire.
In wide-ranging interviews with David Barsamian, his longtime interlocutor, Noam Chomsky asks listeners to consider "the world we are leaving to our grandchildren": one imperiled by the escalation of climate change and the growing potential for nuclear war. If the current system is incapable of dealing with these threats, he argues, it's up to us to radically change it.
These twelve interviews, conducted from 2013 to 2016, examine the latest developments around the globe: the devastation of Syria, the reach of state surveillance, growing anger over economic inequality, the place of religion in American political culture, and the bitterly contested 2016 U.S. presidential election. In accompanying personal reflections on his Philadelphia childhood and his eighty-seventh birthday, Chomsky also describes his own intellectual journey and the development of his uncompromising stance as America's premier dissident intellectual.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 16, 2017
      Every page of this lively, probing, and sharp collection delivers a searing observation from linguist and political-thinker Chomsky. In the 12 interviews, conducted with Chomsky between June 2013 and January 2017 by Alternative Radio host Barsamian, Chomsky speaks with his characteristic matter-of-factness about pressing issues, including climate change, the Trump presidency, and democracy. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan may have “wrapped his proposals in spreadsheets so they would look wonkish to commentators,” but they amount, Chomsky says, to effectively ending the federal government. He dismantles in a few sentences the deception inherent in television commercials: because “everyone produces the same products,” “you have to compensate by fraudulent product differentiation.” He skewers the “double standards” by which the U.S. judges itself and other countries, cannily arguing that this really amounts to a single standard: if others commit a crime against the U.S., it’s a crime; if the U.S. does the same against others, it’s justified. As he prepares to turn 89, Chomsky supplements his trenchant political critiques with lighter-hearted advice on living a long life: “If you’re riding a bicycle and you don’t want to fall off, you have to keep going—fast.” These incisive interviews illustrate that Chomsky still pedals faster than most other social commentators today.

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  • English

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