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mattleesharp's review against another edition
3.0
honestly a little more repetitive than i expected. you can really get a feel for where conversations w ppl were taking him most often from 2010-2012 based on the anecdotes he keeps circling back to.
mcwyss's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who has listened to quite a few of Chomsky’s lectures, there’s not much in here that is new or striking. But I didn’t learn nothing at all. Chomsky’s thoughts on Occupy and the Arab Spring were insightful. I was also astonished to see Barsamian get Chomsky to synthesize his linguistic and political work, something people routinely ask him to do but he always refuses. By hypothesizing that he is successful in both realms because of his “syncretic power”, he is able to get Chomsky to refute by saying that he thinks critically and remains puzzled about the world, something anyone is capable of doing. In the time of Occupy, and now 10 years later as the climate crisis looms, Chomsky’s lessons from the labor movement, the Communist Party and CIO, the Civil Rights Movement, Second Wave Feminism, and lessons already being gleaned from contemporary movements serve as useful tools for activists and organizers everywhere. We must be in it for the long haul, we can’t expect quick victories, and every fight is the basis for a next step and a new struggle.
sensorglitch's review against another edition
2.0
I read this book while sitting in line for the IRS. As I read the book, I half listened to a security guard talk to people. Apparently, the guard had said certain things to people so many times he just said them by wrote. At one point the security guard started talking about a Manifesto by a guy named "Stack". "Wait!" I thought to myself "this sounds familiar" , quickly I flipped through the pages of the book and found Chomsky talking about the exact same things, in almost the same terms. The guard had never read or heard of Chomsky. The simple fact is, the guard was about as scattershot and random as this book is. At some points Chomsky actually claims that questions don't have merit. If the questions don't have merit "WHY HAVE YOU PUBLISHED THEM?"
The book feels like Chomsky took a whole lot of his stock answers to commonly asked emails and published them. Some of the answers are really brilliant and insightful, others are utterly non-sequitur to anything. One page he talks about oil fracking, Canada becoming a client state, and the Vikings moving to Los Angeles. I would not suggest this book to anyone not already familiar with Chomsky, the book feels less like an actual complete work and more like an accessory.
The book feels like Chomsky took a whole lot of his stock answers to commonly asked emails and published them. Some of the answers are really brilliant and insightful, others are utterly non-sequitur to anything. One page he talks about oil fracking, Canada becoming a client state, and the Vikings moving to Los Angeles. I would not suggest this book to anyone not already familiar with Chomsky, the book feels less like an actual complete work and more like an accessory.
jpowerj's review against another edition
5.0
Just incredible. Chomsky's intellect and (more importantly) lucidity is just astounding.
mazreadssometimes's review against another edition
5.0
Critical thinking that the educational system of the US failed to provide, in the name of profit. I would suggest this to just about anyone that needs some vision correction on their third eye for the actual going-ons of US Politics.