Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance
$20
Covid-19 has revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities in the current capitalist system. It represents both a crisis and an opportunity. Everything depends on the actions that people take into their own hands. How does politics shape our world, our lives and our perceptions? How much of ‘common sense’ is actually driven by the ruling classes’ needs and interests? And how are we to challenge the capitalist structures that now threaten all life on the planet?
Consequences of Capitalism exposes the deep, often unseen connections between neoliberal ‘common sense’ and structural power. In making these linkages, we see how the current hegemony keeps social justice movements divided and marginalized. And, most importantly, we see how we can fight to overcome these divisions.
Author
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky, by any measure, has led a most extraordinary life. In one index he is ranked as the eighth most cited person in history, right up there with Aristotle, Shakespeare, Marx, Plato and Freud. His contributions to modern linguistics are legendary. In addition to his pioneering work in that field, he has been a leading voice for peace and social justice for many decades. Chris Hedges says he is “America’s greatest intellectual” who “makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.” He is Institute Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics and Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. At 93, he is still active; writing and giving interviews to the media all over the world. He is the author of scores of books, including Propaganda & the Public Mind, How the World Works, Power Systems and Global Discontents with David Barsamian. His latest books are Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal, Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance, and Chronicles of Dissent: Collected Interviews with David Barsamian, 1984-1996.
Nubar in California –
I am thinking of assigning the book in my globalization class. I love the combination of Chomsky’s matter of fact approach, and the more theoretical approach by his co-author.
Chris Langlois –
Currently reading “Consequences of Capitalism.” FANTASTIC! Not yet half-way through and I have already covered one of the blank pages at the back with my own index of pages I need to return to and reread. On every page, Chomsky and his co-author, Waterstone, reveal history and make connections that flash like fireworks in my brain. Makes me re-think Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “Sooner or later, we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.”
Vandy Bollinger –
Lindsey,
The plane did not vanish as you say – it disintegrated into small pieces consistent with direct impact into the ground at 500 mph. Conspiracy theories like yours delegitimize otherwise sound progressive ideas and practice. You can’t forgive Chomsky?
Lindsay Holt –
I’m sure this last effort is destined to become a classic yet I still cannot forgive Chomsky for believing what is otherwise known as “the official story” version of 9/11.To ignore the idea of the supposed fact that for example, a jet plane vanished into the earth upon impact in a Pennsylvania field, is a true consequence of corrupted capitalism, nonetheless
looking forward to reading “manufacturing discontent” in a time when the Orwellian “ministry of truth” nears just around the corner.