UNDERSTANDING POWER
THE INDISPENSABLE CHOMSKY
Edited by Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel.
A Note on the Events of September 11, 2001. xiii
Chapter One: Weekend Teach-In: Opening Session......... 1
The Achievements of Domestic
Dissidence....... 1
The U.S. Network of Terrorist Mercenary States 4
Overthrowing Third World Governments.......... 6
Government Secrecy........................... 10
The Media: An Institutional Analysis......... 12
Testing the “Propaganda Model”............... 15
The Media and Elite Opinion.................. 18
Filters on Reporting......................... 24
Honest Subordination......................... 30
“Fight it Better”: the Media and the
Vietnam War............................ 31
Chapter Two: Teach-In: Over Coffee.................... 37
“Containing” the Soviet Union in the Cold War 37
Orwell’s World and Ours...................... 41
Contemporary Poverty......................... 45
Religious Fanaticism......................... 50
“The Real Anti-Semitism”..................... 51
Ronald Reagan and the Future of Democracy.... 53
Two New Factors in World Affairs............. 58
Democracy Under Capitalism................... 60
The Empire................................... 64
Change and the Future........................ 67
Chapter Three: Teach-In: Evening...................... 70
The Military-Industrial Complex.............. 70
The Permanent War Economy.................... 73
Libyan and American Terrorism................ 77
The U.S. and the U.N......................... 84
Business, Apartheid, and Racism.............. 88
Winning the Vietnam War...................... 90
“Genocide”: the United States and Pol Pot.... 92
Heroes and Anti-Heroes....................... 93
“Anti-Intellectualism”....................... 95
Spectator Sports............................. 98
Western European Activism and Canada........ 101
Dispelling Illusions........................ 103
Chapter Four: Colloquy............................... 106
The Totalitarian Strain..................... 106
A Lithuania Hypothetical.................... 109
Perpetuating Brainwashing Under Freedom..... 111
Journalism LeMoyne-Style: A Sample of
the Cynical Aspect.................... 115
Rethinking Watergate........................ 117
Escaping Indoctrination..................... 120
Understanding the Middle East Conflict...... 123
The Threat of Peace......................... 126
Water and the Occupied Territories.......... 129
Imperial Ambitions and the Arab Threat...... 131
Prospects for the Palestinians.............. 134
Legitimacy in History....................... 135
Qualifications to Speak on World Affairs;
A Presidential
Campaign............... 137
Chapter Five: Ruling the World....................... 140
Soviet Versus Western Economic Development.. 140
Supporting Terror........................... 144
“People’s Democratic Socialist Republics”... 145
The Organ Trade............................. 146
The Real Crime of Cuba...................... 148
Panama and Popular Invasions................ 151
Muslims and U.S. Foreign Policy............. 154
Haiti: Disturbance at an Export Platform.... 155
Texaco and the Spanish Revolution........... 159
Averting Democracy in Italy................. 160
P.R. in Somalia............................. 163
The Gulf War................................ 165
Bosnia: Intervention Questions.............. 171
Toying With India........................... 172
The Oslo Agreement and Imperialist Revival.. 174
Chapter Six: Community Activists..................... 177
Discussion Circle........................... 177
The Early Peace Movement and a Change
in the 1970s.......................... 180
The Nuclear Freeze Movement................. 184
Awareness and Actions....................... 186
Leaders and Movements....................... 188
Levels of Change............................ 189
Non-Violence................................ 193
Transcending Capitalism..................... 195
The Kibbutz Experiment...................... 196
“Anarchism” and “Libertarianism”............ 199
Articulating Visions........................ 201
“Want” Creation............................. 203
Dissidents: Ignored or Vilified............ 204
Teaching About Resistance................... 211
Isolation................................... 212
Science and Human Nature.................... 214
Charlatans in the Sciences.................. 217
Adam Smith: Real and Fake................... 221
The Computer and the Crowbar................ 223
Chapter Seven: Intellectuals and Social Change....... 224
The Leninist/Capitalist Intelligentsia...... 224
Marxist “Theory” and Intellectual Fakery.... 227
Ideological Control in the Sciences
and Humanities........................ 231
The Function of the Schools................. 233
Subtler Methods of Control.................. 238
Cruder Methods of Control................... 242
The Fate of an Honest Intellectual.......... 244
Forging Working-Class Culture............... 248
The Fraud of Modern Economics............... 251
The Real Market............................. 255
Automation.................................. 258
A Revolutionary Change in Moral Values...... 260
Chapter Eight: Popular Struggle...................... 267
Discovering New Forms of Oppression......... 267
Freedom of Speech........................... 268
Negative and Positive Freedoms.............. 272
Cyberspace and Activism..................... 276
“Free Trade” Agreements..................... 280
Defense Department Funding and “Clean Money” 284
The Favored State and Enemy States.......... 286
Canada’s Media.............................. 288
Should Quebec Separate from Canada?......... 291
Deciphering “China”......................... 292
Indonesia’s Killing Fields: U.S.-Backed
Genocide in East Timor................ 294
Mass Murderers at Harvard................... 298
Changes in Indonesia........................ 299
Nuclear Proliferation and North Korea....... 301
The Samson Option........................... 303
The Lot of the Palestinians................. 305
P.L.O. Ambitions............................ 310
The Nation-State System..................... 313
Chapter Nine: Movement Organizing.................... 318
The Movie Manufacturing Consent............. 318
Media Activism.............................. 323
Self-Destruction of the U.S. Left........... 326
Popular Education........................... 331
Third-Party Politics........................ 333
Boycotts.................................... 337
“A Praxis”.................................. 339
The War on Unions........................... 339
Inner-City Schools.......................... 342
Defending the Welfare State................. 344
Pension Funds and the Law................... 346
Conspiracy Theories......................... 348
The Decision to Get Involved................ 351
“Human Nature Is Corrupt”................... 355
Discovering Morality........................ 356
Abortion.................................... 358
Moral Values................................ 359
Chapter Ten: Turning Point........................... 363
Bringing the Third World Home............... 363
Welfare: the Pea and the Mountain........... 367
Violence and Repression..................... 373
International Capital: the New Imperial Age. 377
The Fairy Tale Economy...................... 382
Building International Unions............... 383
Initial Moves and the Coming Crisis......... 387
Elite Planning -- Slipping Out of Hand...... 380
Disturbed Populations Stirring.............. 395
The Verge of Fascism........................ 398
The Future of History....................... 400
Index....................................... 403