Saturday 13 August 2011

The Imperial Presidency Sovereignty, Terror & The 'Second Superpower' (2005)


It's Noam Chomsky vs. the Bush Regime in this much-anticipated spoken-word release. Recorded in November 2004, just after the reelection of George W. Bush, Chomsky pinpoints the principle commitments of the current administration. In the name of expanding markets and controlling access to key natural resources, we've seen the blatant undermining of democratic practice, contempt for international law, restriction of civil liberties, and the use of State terrorism to further foreign policy objectives. This is not another cataloging of the offenses and blunders committed by George W. Bush, but a lively chronicle of the systematic power plays that have effectively wrenched power from ordinary people's hands and made the world an increasingly unstable place to inhabit.
"Political campaigns are designed by the same industries that sell toothpaste and cars. It's not an exaggeration they are run by the public relations industry... As for Bush's 'moral values,' there's an easy way to find out what they are: just read the business press the day after the election. It describes what is called the 'euphoria' in corporate boardrooms. And it's not because CEOs are opposed to gay marriage. If you want to learn more about Bush's moral values, just observe the principle [he follows], which is that costs are to be transferred to your children and your grandchildren...that's environmental costs, fiscal costs and the rest... The point of the PR industry is to prevent you from seeing anything as obvious as that." - from the CD