UEL English PEN Society Book Reviews

In an attempt to understand more fully why we live in a world where it is possible for a person to be imprisoned, tortured or put under house arrest solely for what they write about the system they live under, I thought it would be interesting to read an interview between one of Americas leading experts on the subject of human rights, Noam Chomsky, and David Barsamian - a writer, broadcaster and lecturer on US foreign policy. This most recently published text is the latest in a line of conversations between the two, and no less electrifying than the rest.

We explore the global democratic uprisings and resulting challenges to the US empire, and though written from an American perspective, the book charts the progress of the democratic movement globally. It is frighteningly accurate and very well indexed – every claim made can be backed up with facts and figures, so if the reader should so wish to explore the truthfulness of it themselves, they can. I must admit, some of the content stunned me (and I am not easily perturbed) – so I did just that.

They talk about, in a very relaxed but intelligently explored interview style, all manner of uprisings and system challenges across the globe. These include apartheid, the Holocaust, Vietnam, Libya, the gay rights movement, the black rights movement, womens rights, workers unions, poverty, the war in Iraq, trade relationships with the Middle East, China, and United Arab Emirates, the Occupy movement, and the global banking system and economy – to name probably only about 10% of the subjects covered. They discuss how these aspects of human existence and governmental control affect our class system, perceptions of equality and responsibility, and every smaller aspect of our lives down to what we buy, where we live, our jobs, who we mix with, how we raise our children, and our education and healthcare systems.

It also explores the war that governments wage on our ability to be aware of these things – using distracting lobbying and advertising techniques, insidious changes to law, and their treatment of whistle-blowers; enabling them to keep control of what otherwise would evolve into a mass uprising of the human race.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in, and perhaps sometimes disturbed by, the world we live in today.

“The profession of dedication to rights is always tinged with a fundamental hypocrisy: rights if we want them, not if we don’t. The clearest example of this is support for democracy. It’s pretty well established over many decades that the US supports democracy only if it accords with strategic and economic objectives. Otherwise it opposes it. The US is by no means alone on that, of course. The same is true of terror, aggression, torture, human rights, freedom of speech, whatever it might be.”

I’m surprised it hasn't been banned yet.

Peace and love (and keep those pledges coming in – only six more days left on our Crowdfunder page!)

Sam