Noam Chomsky is internationally renowned for his valuable, alternate viewpoint to U.S. foreign policy. On this two-CD set, he shows that the United States' first priority abroad is the free flow of capital. Nothing must hinder corporate efforts to sell weapons and purchase oil -- not trade restrictions, environmental protections, and certainly not human rights.
Chomsky shows how the U.S. repeatedly vetoes all efforts at creating international human-rights regulations. A UN-enabling convention on the rights of the child was rejected only by the U.S. and Somalia. But the most interesting part of these speeches are when he discusses America's economic boom of the late '90s and early 2000s. "All the odes to the fairy tale economic boom quite consistently point to the stock market for proof of how great things are," he says, "and it is great for the people who own stock. One percent of households own about half the stock and most of the rest is owned by the top ten percent. But for most of the population, roughly three-quarters, this is just something to watch, not something you take part in, and you watch it while your own conditions stagnate or decline." He goes on to describe the boom from the view of the average worker. "Workers are working longer, a month longer than 25 years ago. There is less pay, working conditions are worse, and there is far less security." The second CD is about U.S. Iraq policy and it covers a lot of familiar ground. Here,
Chomsky draws some conclusions that are far-out, including that the U.S. is trying to reduce the population of Iraq, which might benefit oil production in the future. He doesn't attempt to balance any of his information, but the majority of what he has to say is relevant and critical. ~ Adam Bregman