[THS] Review: Hopes and Prospects, By Noam Chomsky

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25963.htm

Hopes and Prospects, By Noam Chomsky

Reviewed by Johann Hari

By Johann Hari

July 19, 2010 "The Independent" -- Noam Chomsky is one of the most hysterically
abused figures in the world today. Even his critics have to concede that his work in
the field of linguistics – beginning to decode the structure of how language is formed
in the human brain – makes him one of the most important intellectuals alive. But
when he applies the same rigorous method to figuring out how power – especially
the American government's – works, he is pepper-sprayed with smears. He is a self-
hating Holocaust denier, a jihad-loving traitor, a Pol Pot-licking communist, and on
and on.

If all you know of his work is the smears, then Hopes and Prospects will be a
revelation. In his dry, understated way, he excavates the reality behind the Babel of
24/7 corporate news, and places long-buried truths on the table to examine. Every
one is sourced to the leading academic journals, the best experts, the sharpest
medical advice – yet each one is a shock if you rely on news brought to you by
corporations and corrupt right-wing billionaires.

For example, he uncovers the story of why Haiti is so poor, and could be shaken to
pieces by an earthquake that would have killed only a handful in California. It's a
story of man-made earthquakes, one after another. The country was the first to rebel
against slavery and to cast off the whip-hand – and was brutally punished by the
French Empire. Every time it has begun to rise to its feet, it has been kicked back
down, with the American Empire taking over to topple its elected leaders (the last
was put on a plane at gunpoint in 2008) and stifle any moves towards development.

But who has heard about it? Who tries to hold our leaders accountable for it?
Chomsky is trying to rescue crimes from the memory-hole. He explains that Ronald
Reagan – the great hero of the US right – was a great champion of jihadism. It was
Reagan who encouraged Pakistan simultaneously to become fundamentalist, and
acquire nuclear weapons. Chomsky coolly condemns "the global jihad launched by
Zia and Reagan," for geopolitical reasons, with no concern for the after-effects.

But Reagan remains unstained. Chomsky quotes the great American historian Francis
Jennings, who noted that "In history, the man in the ruffled shirt and gold-coated
waistcoat levitates above the blood he has ordered to be spilled by dirty-handed
underlings." Instead, Chomsky says, history is too often ruled by Thucydides's maxim:
"The strong do as they wish, while the poor suffer as they must."

It doesn't have to be this way. This is a book woven through with hope and awe at all
the people who slip beyond imperial control and establish real democracy. Chomsky's
strongest model – and the world's – is Bolivia's experiment with radical democracy.
After 30 years of having neoliberalism forced on them by the West, including the cost
of water pushed beyond their grasp, the Bolivian people elected the first indigenous
leader since the European conquests. Since then, it has had the fastest fall in poverty
and the most rapid growth in Latin America.

In his cool blizzard of facts and sources, the hot air of his critics seems to melt away.
To pluck one example, the leftist-turned-neocon supporter Nick Cohen has accused
Chomsky of being soft on jihadism (as well as of "not being bothered" by "the crimes
of Adolf Hitler"). Yet Chomsky points out that an analysis of official data for the
government-supported RAND corporation found that the invasion of Iraq caused a
"seven-fold increase in jihadism." If you really hate jihadism, you have to figure out
what reduces it, rather than engage in bluster. Chomsky supported the path that
produces fewer jihadis, while Cohen supports the path that produces more.

Chomsky presents all this plainly, and a sly sense of humour. Describing the growing
rebellions in Afghanistan, he notes: "People have the odd characteristic of objecting
to the slaughter of family members and friends." When I was shamefully wrong
about the war in Iraq, it was an email exchange with Chomsky – where he laid bare
the best evidence about what was motivating the US government – that helped me
figure out where I had erred.

Hopes and Prospects is a book that can do the same for many more people – a
treasure-trove of truths that shouldn't be left buried in our sandpit of propaganda
and lies.

© 2010 The Independent