Realities ignored by the Establishment Media.
Preston C. Enright | Denver, CO United States | 08/17/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This lecture was recorded in 1995, so here and there are some dated comments; but this CD still contains many invaluable insights. He exposes the massive deception of so-called "free markets" and reveals how much of the U.S. economy works through massive public subsidy in reseach and development (computers, electronics, aeronautics, etc.). Much of the basic research for all sorts of future products comes from our publicly funded universities, then industries get nurtured though tax credits and government purchases, and much else. So, when the captains of industry lecture us about the wealth they allegedly created, we need to remember our investment and the investment of our parents and grandparents that actually created the wealth. Bill Gates' father, Bill Sr., wrote an honest book about this reality in Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.
Chomsky also makes important points about the way elite "perception managers" are waging a info war to sow confusion and pacify people who may otherwise be resisting various injustices of corporate globalization. He notes that in the 1950s the U.S. had a thriving labor press that reached millions of people, but it was destroyed by media consolidation and the dominance of concentrated wealth to provide news and views The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas. Also, many people who are angry and desperate have become easy prey for right-wing theologians who provide a version of Christianity that rulers like Emperor Constantine or King George would appreciate Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History Vol. 1. Similarly, the term "conservative" has been co-opted as well. It has come to mean a person who wants to give Big Business free reign, combined with war-mongering and war-profiteering Why We Fight. Yet the history of coservatism is quite different from what it is defined as today Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism.
There are good reasons why Chomsky is referred to as a modern-day Socrates. A person will pick up insight from any of his recordings or books. I find his interviews to be most interesting, What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World, Perilous Power: The Middle East & U.S. Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice and Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky. The way he exposes the elites' agenda has predictably generated a massive campaign to dismiss and defame his work; but as the biography The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower shows, there's no stopping this train of radical thought."
Track Listings (17) - Disc #1
