A review by mcwyss
Power Systems: Conversations on Global Democratic Uprisings and the New Challenges to U.S. Empire by Noam Chomsky

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.