BOOK REVIEW

Power & Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order

By Noam Chomsky

Publisher: Pluto Press

345 Archway Road London

Reviewed by
Sqn Ldr Wasif Shahzad
D # 12
No 51 PNSC
Title
1. “Power & Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order”
is a comprehensive collection of essays by Noam Chomsky
Author

2. Noam Chomsky is one of America's most prominent political dissidents. A

renowned professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts institute of Technology,
he has authored over 30 political books dissecting such issues as U.S.
interventionism in the developing world, the political economy of human rights
and the propaganda role of corporate media. His books include, ‘’what Uncle
Sam really wants’’, ‘’Human Rights and US Foreign Policy’’, ‘’Profit over people’’,
and the ‘’Prosperous few and restless many’’.

Theses
3. Noam Chomsky analyzes the increasingly obvious, harm caused by
powerful institutions helped along by apologetic academic or silenced journalists.
The theme is based on his provocative but logical essays. Agio Pereira,
executive director of the East Timor Relief Association (ETRA) opens the book
with an appreciation of Chomsky for bringing his considerable reputation to the
side of the Timorese struggle for freedom.

Contents

4. The book contains eight chapters based on the wide ranging lectures
and essays. Noam Chomsky brings together his thoughts on topics ranging
from language and human nature, to the United States hypocrisy to the Middle
East settlement and the role of East Timor in the New World Order.

Linguistics
5. The first two essays are on language, thought and nature, elaborations
which appear as the core Problem of Knowledge and Freedom. It includes
essays that describe the role of the cognitive revolution in linguistics and
explore the way scientific questions are asked, answered, and influenced by
dominant ways of thinking. The chapters provide arresting glimpses of how
human nature can sometimes be seen in tiny grains of language and how
human beings tend to think of objects as their exteriors.

Goals and Visions

6. The third essay is a reminder to writers of the intellectual responsibilities.

He strongly challenges the writers and visionaries to tell the truth and this
should be done for an audience who matter and not just for the sake of being
appreciated. Chomsky argues that today's committed revolutionaries should
defend the attacks by corporations, and governments, while trying at the same
time to force them to open to more meaningful public participation.

Democracy and Markets in new World Order and Human Rights

7. Chomsky draws links between foreign policy decisions, the role of the
media, and the potential for free and democratic societies to understand and
counter the heinous acts being committed. For instance, Chomsky goes to
some length to place his revolutionary "vision" within the Enlightenment and
classical liberalism. He writes about what Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger
are alleged to have done to overthrow and death of Salvadore Allende, and
thus abort their stated political goal of transforming the Chilean economy into a
federation of workers' enterprises. In the fifth essay, Chomsky returns to a topic
familiar to even his most casual readers, the American government's bloody
role in international affairs. He supports a relentless attack on US policymakers
with admissions, facts, and quotations from a range of sources. In chapter six,
Chomsky turns to the Middle East where, he concludes, the so called "peace
process” which according to Mr. Bush means "what we say goes,” Finally, in the
last two chapters, we get to East Timor. Here he accuses the United States and
Briton of state violence and war crimes, as defined by international rules of law,
in an effort to gain full control and profits from the strategic oil reserves in the
Timor Gap.

Evaluation
8. The book is more of an accumulation of essays rather than a coherent set
of arguments. Moreover, the forward is misdirecting. Apart from the difficult
language which is typical of a linguistic and an excessively long preamble to the
actual problem, this book will be of great interest to the general reader who will
discover new writings on the current topics unveiling the truth and the conspiracy
of the power full against the under developed nations.