Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (American Empire Project) | 
| Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  273 reviews
Sales Rank: 41791
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.8
Dimensions (in): 13.2 x 8.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 0805076883
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.7309051
EAN: 9780805076882
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
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Amazon.com Review
Noam Chomsky is considered the father of modern linguistics. In this richly detailed criticism of American foreign policy, he seeks to redefine many of the terms commonly used in the ongoing American war on terrorism. Surveying U.S. actions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey, the Far East and elsewhere over the past half a century along with the modern American war in Iraq, Chomsky indicates that America is just as much a terrorist state as any other government or rogue organization. George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq drew worldwide criticism, in part because it seemed to present a new philosophy of pre-emptive war and an appearance of global empire building. But according to Chomsky, such has been the operating philosophy of American foreign policy for decades. Opponents of the Bush administration's tactics consistently point out how the American government supported Saddam Hussein for many years prior to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait (pictures of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand are easy to come by) as a means of pointing out how the United States is happy to fund despots when it's in American interests. But Chomsky, armed with extensive historical notation, takes this notion further, arguing how the repression of other nations' citizenry is, in fact, the very reason Americans support certain foreign leaders. The charges made throughout the book are severe, as are the dire consequences he posits if current trends are not reversed, and Chomsky is no more likely to make friends or gain supporters from the mainstream now than he's ever been. But Hegemony or Survival is relatively dispassionate. Instead of relying on camp or shock value or personal attacks as some of his contemporaries have done, Chomsky drives his well-supported points steadily forward in an earnest and highly readable style. --John Moe
Product Description
"Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive . . . He is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet." -The New York Times Book ReviewAn immediate national bestseller, Hegemony or Survival demonstrates how, for more than half a century the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing-as in the Cuban missile crisis-to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this perilous moment and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species.With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky tracks the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of "full spectrum dominance" and vividly lays out how the most recent manifestations of the politics of global control-from unilateralism to the dismantling of international agreements to state terrorism-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our existence. Lucidly written, thoroughly documented, and featuring a new afterword by the author, Hegemony or Survival is a definitive statement from one of today's most influential thinkers.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 268 more reviews...
 Offers no solution September 12, 2008
This is a very insightful, biased, anti-American, and perhaps slightly even an anti-humanity piece of work.
This book is full of events Chomsky claims US did to sabotage and destroy foreign countries. Chomsky offers insights into US's foreign policies and what it has done to accomplish "global dominance" (Chomsky claims US has openly said these specific words, but I find no reference). I take them to be true, and I think everyone should know what has happened. However, he accuses US of hypocrisy, and yet, he does not offer any solution to our current state. He merely points fingers and still enjoys the life he has in the US. To me, he is a hypocrite also.
His critique does not extend to just the Bush administration but to basically how the US runs in general. One example is his critique of military research expenditure in the US. US does spend more money than anyone other country, and I agree that these private companies like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are too subsidized. He is right when he says that we, the people, are basically paying for a lot of that without our knowledge (most people don't know where their tax money goes). However, even though he admits military technology makes transition to the public sector if it proves useful, he fails to appraise this fact. A lot of useful things we use today are from military research: satellites and jets just to name a few.
Another major part of this criticism is the US' propaganda campaign through media. He is against "protecting the minority of the opulent against the majority," as James Madison put it. This propaganda keeps the public submissive and without too much awareness of what is actually going on outside of their country. Perhaps, it is not right to try to control the public mind, but it is not necessarily wrong, either. It seems to me that Chomsky wants every individual to have his own mind and his own opinion. People need to be controlled to maintain a stable state, as proven well with our successful country and failed systems in other parts of the world, but Chomsky is against this. I can't even start to imagine Chomsky's world. It is important to recognize how well this "propaganda" has worked for us in the US and not just denounce it (give a solution if you're going to point fingers).
In essence, though, Chomsky doesn't seem to have faith in the entire humanity. He says humans are savages that only destroy life on the plant and, perhaps, it was a mistake that humans came to be in this stage of advancement in the first place. As he states, the average life span of a species on this planet is about 100,000 years, and says we'll see if nature has made an error in letting humans advance so much. Overall, I somewhat enjoyed this book, but I cannot tolerate some of the things he says. Therefore, I give this book a 3 out of 5.
 A Must Read August 11, 2008
Direct, blunt and confrontational. Chomsky has started me on a new search for truth, first fo myself, then hopefully for others.
 An unconventional, controversial view of U.S. foreign policy August 7, 2008
Most commentators view globalization almost exclusively from an economic perspective. However, controversial iconoclast Noam Chomsky, a well-known left-wing (some would say far left) academic, famed also as an innovator in linguistics, discusses globalization's political impact as the modern driver of U.S. foreign policy. Political economics is a sensitive topic, but Chomsky doesn't hold back as he argues that U.S. foreign policy has been imperialist since World War I. He contends that in the invasion of Iraq, and earlier forays elsewhere, the U.S. disregarded the U.N. as well as public opinion at home and abroad. Chomsky makes important, though contentious, points, but he would have a wider audience if he developed a more comprehensible writing style, avoided torturously long sentences, and provided more background on some events he covers, particularly America's more esoteric political and military interventions. He is provocative, subjective and deeply negative about the U.S. (even referring to it as a "terrorist state") and its allies. getAbstract finds this book may intrigue those who want to know about political thinking at all ends of the spectrum. (As is true of every Abstract, the following views are those of the author and not of getAbstract.)
CHOMSKY IS OUR WATCHDOG WITH ONE EYE CLOSED June 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
America needs Noam Chomsky (even with his faults) because America has an abundance of proles who hang out down in Plato's cave watching the shadows on the wall and building their belief systems based on those shadows. If it wasn't so sad, I would almost say it's amusing to observe these proles as they slowly and gradually receive information contrary to those shadows, like the revelations in Scott McClellan's book that just came out in June, 2008. But a much bigger punch gets delivered by Mr. Chomsky ever so often, as he writes book after book on the terroristic foreign policy of the US. People choose to dismiss Chomsky because his assertions are not repeated in the mainstream media (as if the government-controlled mainstream media would bite the hand that feeds it). Chomsky is undeterred. He cites country after country, in the Western Hemisphere and abroad, where US foreign policy has murdered thousands of innocent people, and he leaves no confusion in his wake about the US being a major state-sponsored terrorist nation. It's a sad realization that the virtuous constitutional republic we all learn about in the schools is just a big lie. But cold hard truth is always depressing, isn't it (have you stepped on the weight scales lately?)? For those of you who don't understand why the US gov't is this way, simply look no further than Mr. Chomsky's subtitle: "...America's Quest for Global Dominance". But while Mr. Chomsky is willing to villify the US in foreign matters, he won't touch American-sponsored DOMESTIC terrorism. Why? Can you say...book sales???
 Reading ANY Chomsky Book, it occurs to the Reader: how many new Terrorists did Chomsky's anti-Americanism actually create?!?!?!? April 16, 2008
5 out of 31 found this review helpful
Chomsky is the Father of Lies; this is the derogatory brand with which he will be referred to throughout my scathing criticism of a review of his propaganda-book, Hegemony or Survival. Reading any anti-American--and variously pro-terror, pro-Palestinian, pro-communist, pro-radical Islam--screed from Chomsky subjects the reader to murderously extreme bias, one-sidedness and oftentimes manipulation of the facts. Before reading any propaganda work by Chomsky, the reader will do himself a huge service in realizing that Chomsky is 100% biased against the US, the War on Terror, capitalism...while concurrently exhibiting feral favoritism for terrorists, dictators, socialists/communists, government subsidies, and Arab extremists!!!! As such, Chomsky is an advocate of the hazardously radical far-left, and this in and of itself isn't a problem because Chomsky cannot help being afflicted with liberalism/secular progressive disease, etc.. However, he's intellectually dishonest as he never divulges that he has a clearly glaring agenda.
The Father of Lies' easily discreditable argument in Hegemony is summed up henceforth: the US is so blackened in its evil nature that it pursues foreign policy not to help people or for its national interests, but to subjugate people under its control via terrorism and enormities. This mendacious imitation of an argument by the Father of Lies is based on radicalized prejudice against the US; you'd already have to be indoctrinated with anti-American animosity to take anything he writes at face value. An additionally sinful weakness of the Father of Lies' presentation is that Hegemony--like virtually all his "books" (read: recruitment tools for terrorists)--fails to present arguments based on either logic or trust. He almost 100% bases his deceitful imitations of arguments on emotion--the emotionalism of irrational, America-hating ideologues!!!! This charge is 100% verified when we examine the woeful sources the Father of Lies uses. In his notes, he exclusively either uses only HIS OWN, previous books or the radicalized and unfair opinions of ideologues who share his same anti-Americanism, working at liberal papers like the NYT, LAT or Boston Globe, or anti-American ideologues in academia.
The Father of Lies is exaggeratedly and indefensibly rumored to be a master at linguistics. However, when we analyze the definition of linguistics, we see the Father of Lies is 100% overrated and in reality only a low-minded thug who manipulates the semantics of the quotes of public figures he despises!!!! Linguistics is defined as the study of the nature, structure and variation of language including semantics, phonetics and phonology. In Hegemony--as he furiously does with his other "books" of anti-American recruitment--the Father of Lies seemingly does this by excruciatingly quoting people at length. Yet, what the intellectually honest reader (not a laughingstock, indoctrinated liberal with anti-American ideology) will notice is that he doesn't fairly analyze the quotes of people he targets. Instead, the Father of Lies manipulates, takes out of context, or generally forges the true meaning of what those quoted figures have said!!!! Additionally, another black eye for the Father of Lies is that he's not much of a legitimate author: half his "books" are overflowing with context-less quotes he pilfered from other sources.
For example, in Chapter 8, the Father of Lies charges the US with falsifying the certainty they needed in order to justify war with Afghanistan post 911. He quotes FBI director Mueller as saying, during Senate testimony, that the US government merely believes that the idea to plan the 911 attacks originated from Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Father of Lies dishonestly stresses the word "believe" to insinuate that the US government wasn't sure about where the 911 planning emerged. However, the verb "believe" also can be defined as having confidence in the truth or value of something. Through that definition, it irrefutably sounds like Mueller's Senate testimony was in fact credible and not just mere opinion!!!! However, the Father of Lies totally distorts Mueller's use of the word "believe"; that's how devious he is.
Furthermore, Hegemony earns lots of demerits due to factual corruption. For instance, regarding the liberation of Iraq by Bush, the Father of Lies has the nervy audacity to misbehave as the late Hussein's apologist by crediting Hussein for directing oil profits to internal development!!!! This is the only part of the sanctions program the Father of Lies applauds, yet we now know that Hussein was taking massive kickbacks to the tune of several billions from an unwary UN, totally destroying Chomsky's whitewashing of Hussein!!!!
Another egregious evildoing by the Father of Lies is through his overwhelming partisanship against the Israelis. Chomsky fanatically believes the Israelis are the terrorists, and he berates them for the accidental killings of Pali civilians, building of the wall to constrict suicide-bombing Arabs, and the annexation of purportedly Pali lands. However, Chomsky AGAIN conceals the terrorist misconduct from Palis which necessitate Israel's reaction of self-defense: the Pali-instigated terrorism of cowardly targeting Israeli women and children and NEVER abiding by peace agreements.
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