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

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.