Requiem for the American Dream
Noam Chomsky
Summary
A takedown of the decline of the American empire as written by one of the most famous intellectuals of the 20th century. Originally was a documentary (incredible must watch - free link here) and turned into a book. 10 reasons why America is failing.
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Social mobility is lower in America than Europe
Privileged and powerful sectors have never liked democracy
Vicious cycle: concentration of wealth yields concentration of power and as election costs skyrocket, politices pirates are in the hands of the major wealthy corporations. This power translates into legislation benefitting those who already have the wealth. So fiscal policy like taxes, deregulation and corporate governance yields more political power to do the same. We’re in this vicious cycle right now
James Madison, who designed the constitution, believed the wealthy should design the system because they are more responsible and have the public interest at heart, not their own. So most of the power was held by the senate, who used to be unelected officials
Aristotle was right - the way to overcome the paradox of democracy is by reducing inequality, not reducing democracy
The difference b/w democracy and oligarchy is b/w poverty and wealth. Whenever the rulers owe their power to wealth is an oligarchy. Whenever the power is split, that is democracy. Democracy is when free citizens have authority and oligarchy is when the rich have it
The tendency of K-12 is reducing education to mechanical skills and undermining creativity and independence - which are methods of indoctrination and control
There has been a concerted effort by the owners of society to shift the enemy ad one of them is to increase the role of financial institutions
In 1950, manufacturing was 28% of American GDP and Finance was 11%. In 2010, manufacturing was 11% of GDP and finance was 21%
The trade system was reconstructed to put working people in competition all over the world making an American worker is in competition with an ultra-exploited worker in China
Workers can’t move, labour can’t move, but capital can
Financialization and offshoring are part of what feeds to the vicious concentration of wealth and power
There is constant pressure from systems of power to prevent constraints on expanding their power and profit and the only counterforce is you the people
The wealthy, ultra-elite are following Adam Smith’s vile maxim ‘all for ourselves and nothing for anyone else’
The tax system has been re-designed so taxes paid by the wealthy are reduced and the tax burden on the rest of the population inicreases
One’s own employee ought to be one’s own customer - Henry Ford
Most students in America leave college with bigger debts and once you have big debts, you’re trapped
There is no economic reason why education cannot be available to everyone for free but there are social and political reasons
America is rampant with regulatory capture - the business being regulated is running the regulators. The banks and bank lobby are writing the laws of financial regulation
There were no financial crashes in the 50s and 60s when the regulatory apparatus of the New Deal was still in place. As it dismantled in the 70s and 80s, financial crashes took off
The people picked to fix the 08 crisis were those who created it
We don’t have a capitalist system because the businesses don’t want that, they need to bullied out
America: one set of rules for the rich and opposite set of rules for the poor
Citizens United Supreme Court Decision made companies ‘persons’ under the law meaning they have the same rights and privileges. Undocumented immigrants aren’t people according to the law but Ford and General Electric are
Courts decided money was a form of speech in Buckley vs. Valeo and w/ the Citizens United decision, corporations can spend as much money on elections with no oversight
Power is in the hands of the governed. They can if they get together take power but as long as they’re made ot feel like they don’t have power, the powerful continue to rule. It’s why the PR industry is so enormous
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to create uninformed consumers who make irrational decisions - that’s what advertising is
In every aspect of our daily lives we are governed by a few people who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses
Policy is uncorrelated with public attitudes and closely correlated with corporate interests
The activists are the people who have created the rights we employ
‘What matters is the countless small deeds of unknown people who lay the basis for the significant events that enter history’ - Howard Zinn
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Free E-book download here
How the World Works
Noam Chomsky
Summary
A combination of books Chomsky wrote in the 80s and 90s about America and it's role in the world. Fascinating read and insight into one of the great thinkers of the 21st century
Rating: 5/5
Notes
The US invaded Greece in 1947 and supported a horrendous war which led to 160k Greek deaths. This was the model for Vietnam and allowed American business to gain and thrive
US policies in the 3rd world consistently opposed democracies if they couldn’t be controlled as real democracies believe government should respond to the needs of their own population rather than those of US investors
US-run contra forces in the 3rd world isn’t ordering killing - it’s brutal sadistic torture (Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala)
From the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 till the collapse of the communist governments in eastern europe in the 80s, it was possible to justify every US attack as defense against the Soviets
If you want a global system that’s subordinated to the needs of US investors, you can’t let pieces of it wander off. It’s clearly stated in the documents of record
The US wants ‘stability’ meaning security for the upper classes and large foreign businesses
Solid case for impeaching every American president since World War 2 either outright as war criminals or involved in serious war crimes
El Salvador and Nicaragua were not covered by the US media in the 70s when US-supported brutal torture and murder were taking place
In the early 80s, America’s friends slaughtered 10s of thousands of Guatemalans with countless others tortured and raped
After Vietnam, the major US policy goal has been to maximize repression and suffering of countries demonstrated by their violence - blocked other countries from seeking aid
The US regularly carries out or supports aggression
For most of the 20th century, the US was the dominant economic power and used economic warfare as a weapon ranging from illegal embargoes to enforcement of weak IMF rules with their military becoming pre-eminent
The US tries to avoid negotiations with countries as the US fears it will lose and other countries will be better off
When a state has huge debts, it must divert the population from what’s happening and they do this by inspiring fear of our enemies (Russia in Europe)
The real enemy of the US has always been ‘the poor who seek to plunder the rich’. In America, it’s the opposite and has been for generations
‘The war on drugs’ was a manufactured media blitz by the US leadership to distract the population, increase repression in inner cities and build support for attack on civil liberties
The US government blocks international effort to seek peace (Russia and Ukraine)
Major media are large companies owned and interlinked with even larger conglomerates. The market is the advertisers and the product is audiences
The power in the US lies in the hands of people who determine investment decisions as they determine production, distribution and staff the government. They want a passive, quiescent population
The struggle of freedom is never over and requires active and sustained efforts
One important consequence of globalization is it extends the third world model to industrial nations where the average person has their jobs shipped away while the rich and elite continue to amass massive amounts of wealth
We’ve moved to an international state with the IMF, World Bank, G7 & EU, WEF where the general population doesn’t know what’s happening and it doesn’t know it doesn’t know
If the borrowing the US has done was used for constructive purposes like investment or infrastructure, the US would be better off, but it was used to enrich the rich - for consumption, financial manipulation and speculation which are all harmful
The class warfare of the last few decades has successfully weakened popular organizations leaving people to feel isolated
The US is so deeply in debt to the international financial community because of debt that they have a lock on US policy
Many of the large number of security council resolutions vetoed by the US have to do with Israeli aggression or atrocities
Invaders typically use local collaborators to run things for them by playing upon existing rivalries to get onne group to work for them against another
European wars were wars of extermination. If we were to be honest about history, we would simply describe it as barbarian invasion
There has always been racism but it developed as a leading principle of thought in the context of colonialism.
A standard technique of belief formation goes along with oppression
In the US, you’re not allowed to talk about the class differences, which is the real issue
When the US establishment talks about jobs, it means profits for its corporations
The elite are masters and they follow what Adam Smith said about ‘the vile maxim’ - all for ourselves and nothing for anyone else
People who aren’t owners and investors have nothing much to say in the US
Jefferson warned against banking institutions and corporations and said if they grow, aristocrats would’ve won and the revolution would’ve been lost
The ‘Free market’ is for the poor. We have a dual system - protection for the rich and market discipline for everyone else
There’s been a considerable increase in inequality and has the American society moving towards a third world model, thereby seeing increased crime and signs of social disintegration
A huge area of the media is dedicated to diverting people and making them more stupid and passive
There’s nothing individualistic about corporations who are totalitarian in nature
Free trade agreements result in reduced wages for local employees while predominantly benefiting the rich consumer while also destroying unions
Operation Paper Clip imported large number of known Nazi criminals
The American army’s counter-insurgency literature begins with an analysis of the German experience in Europe written with the co-operation of Naxi officials (instruments of statecraft - book)
US involvement in Chile with the coup in 1973 to reduce social democracy
The threat of a good empire is what the US worried about with reforms on uncontrolled capitalism
The US killed a few million people and destoryed 3 countries during the Vietnam war
A huge amount of business propaganda is to create wants
The answers to solve all these issues is to organize. Being alone you can’t do anything but if you join with other people, you can make changes
Under capitalism, investment is supposed to be as risk free as possible. No competition wants free markets - what they want is power
The government subsidizes corporations’ costs, protects them from market risks and lets them keep the profits
There’s never been much difference between the 2 business parties and the differences are disappearing
The CIA has been involved in drug running for generations (the politics of heroin book)
You need something to frighten people with, to prevent them from paying attention to what’s really happening to them. You have to engender fear and hatred
The first world lives in a highly indoctrinated society
Neoliberalism is nothing more than the imperial formula: free markets for you and plenty of protection for me. The rich would never accept it but they’re happy to impose it on the poor
The UN does mostly what US business wants
‘Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business’ - John Devery
If people dedicate themselves to organizing and activism, we’ll gain access to broader audiences
If you extrapolate to the future, it’s very ugly but the point is it’s not inevitable. It can be changed but we can’t change things till we understand them.
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Buy the book here
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