Has anyone read Chomsky or Chalmers Johnson or like authors?

[mmonk]

Are you susceptable to believe all the narratives of CIA and NATO led operations without having questions in the back of your minds? Are there double standards applied in any opinions between Republican and Democratic Party presidents? Just a few questions I have. Over the last couple of decades or so, I've gotten to a point whereby I question all "official" stories. I suppose I'm war weary and bored with militarism while so many suffer indignities and injustice at home. I don't fit anymore.

[TomClash]

1. K & R

You have company.

I think it comes from being deceived often.

[Javaman]

2. You are not alone.

while I haven't read anything by Chomsky, I have seen and read a number of his interviews. Check out the documentary, "The Corporation", there are a number of interviews on there and an extensive one with Chomsky.

I have read a few things by Howard Zinn. That man was brilliant. We lost a great mind when he passed away. But his writings and legacy lives on.

[Doctor_J]

3. Michael Parenti

Stays under the radar - given even less time than Chomsky by Big Media.

To your point, I don't think there is any doubt that the CIA controls our media to a large extent. The biggest question to me is why this was allowed to happen here, in the beacon of the free world, while other civilized countries still seem to have some free press.

[mmonk]

10. Good question.

[leveymg]

4. I studied Poli Sc under Zinn for 3 years, have talked to Chomsky, and did an Honors seminar in

Sociology of Revolutions. If there's some particular subject matter you're most interested in, I can probably turn you on to some good source material.

[raccoon]

6. Lucky you!

know of some good source material for Sociology of Revolutions?

[leveymg]

12. You should start with one of the casebook presentations of social revolutions

That should give you a good survey of the literature and concrete examples. Here's one available on-line: Google: "Casebook of Social Revolutions"

#
Rethinking revolutions and collective violence: studies on ... - Google Books Result
books.google.com/books?isbn=9073052084...Roderick Aya - 1990 - Revolutions - 195 pages
Though this last claim is a regular casebook example of petitio principii, ... Indeed, Skocpol observes, the Big Three social revolutions all started with ...
#

[mmonk]

9. Most excellent.

I'm impressed.

[Marrah_G]

11. Howard Zinn is a treasure, how lucky you are

My sons gf has Chomsky daughter Avi Chomsky as a professor at Salem State this year.

[leveymg]

13. Haven't met Avi. But, her old man has a better sense of humor than some

believe. I think Noam is a treasure, as well. Howard was a really, really fine human being. As good as they get.

[Marrah_G]

17. My son is getting his big history book for Yule this year

I'm buying a copy for him and his girlfriend. I sent them links to Chomsky's going to talk at Occupy Boston, but I am not sure if they were able to make it there. They are both working their way through college on scholarships/military (they get free tuition and fees but they have to pay for housing, food, books) so sometimes even just train fare into the city is too much.

I watched the Howard Zinn documentary ( the one with the train in the title) on Link TV and was just so incredibly impressed. He is the sort of person I wish we had in Washington. Maybe someday our leaders will be our wisest and most educated people instead of the slickest talkers with the most campaign money :(

[cilla4progress]

14. Lucky you!

Fellow poli sci major here.

Read "A People's History," of course. Started reading "American Hegemony," by Chomsky, a few years ago. Very illuminating about CIA in Latin America. Both books shed light on disturbing aspects of our history and government.

[azul]

5. Yes. When war is outlawed and senseless it needs a good spin and cover-up.

Have you read Body of Secrets by James Bamford? And there is a new edition of Lawless World coming out by Phillipe Sands.

Militarism needs to be marched into the brig. And take the profit out of bogus wars.

[FarCenter]

7. Chalmers Johnson, yes, most of his later books

During WW I & II, the United States evolved from being a regional power with limited interests to being one of the great world powers.

This thoroughly embedded the US in the system of international relations between great powers which is based on ambition, deceit, and treachery. Foreign policy is bipartisan.

[Marrah_G]

8. I don't believe much of anything coming out of Washington

I'm to the point where I think we really have little choice in who we even get to vote for. The money and power back those they want in power and then we get to vote for one of their two choices.

[starroute]

15. Chomsky is speaking at Occupy Boston tomorrow - 6 pm

I don't know if there will be any official coverage, but there's an Occupy Boston livestream at http://www.livestream.com/occupyboston

http://www.occupyboston.org/2011/10/18/noam-chomsky-at-occupy-boston-tomorrow

Internationally-recognized author, linguist, and activist Noam Chomsky will be speaking at Occupy Boston in Dewey Square on Saturday, October 22 at 6 pm as part of Free School University’s Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series. Chomsky has already released statements of support for both Occupy Boston and Occupy Wall Street, and we are honored to be hosting him.

[bvar22]

16. I would add Naomi Klein to your list.

What has just occurred in Libya is only the latest edition of Disaster Capitalism at its most brutal.
Libya WILL be turned into a NeoLiberal Free market HELL
with the Global Banks, The Global Resource Extraction Corporations, and the IMF owning every-fucking-thing.
(SEE: Iraq)

In 2008 Gaddafi demanded and received a bigger piece of the Oil Profits
$5.4 Billion worth of Profit Sharing, enough to make even Global Oil Corporations squeal,
and setting a very BAD precedent for the Resource Rich African Continent.
(SEE: The HUGE New Oil Finds in Uganda)

Gaddafi was also "studying" the Nationalization of all Libya's Oil.
He was also a strong promoter and financier of the Pan African Movement
(Africa FOR Africans, NOT Western Corporations),
and was blocking the IMF's access to Africa by undercutting their predatory "Development Loans"
in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Western Disaster Capitalists Piggy-Backed on the legitimate uprisings of the Arab Spring,
and used their Enforcement Arm (NATO) to create and manage The Disaster.

” For all his dictatorial megalomania, Gaddafi is a committed pan-African - a fierce defender of African unity. Libya was not in debt to international bankers. It did not borrow cash from the International Monetary Fund for any "structural adjustment". It used oil money for social services - including the Great Man Made River project, and investment/aid to sub-Saharan countries. Its independent central bank was not manipulated by the Western financial system. All in all a very bad example for the developing world.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD27Ak01.html

Goldman Sachs "Lost" 98% of Libya's $1.3B Sovereign Wealth Fund Investment
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/05/31/goldman-sachs-lost-98-of-libyas-1-3b-sovereign-wealth-fund-investment/

Financial Heist of the Century: Confiscating Libya's Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?aid=24479&context=va

NATO nations set to reap spoils of Libya war
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182511546451332.html?utm_content=automateplus&utm_campaign=Trial5&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=MasterAccount&utm_term=tweets



Anybody who has followed US Military Interventions in the Middle East for the last 100 years
finds Humanitarian Concerns to be a laughable excuse for the Bombing of Libya.

FOLLOW THE MONEY.
Freedom Bombs aren't FREE!!!
Libya and Africa will pay a horrible price for their "Freedom".




If you're not FOR the New OIL WAR in Libya,
you're WITH The Communists AlQaeda The Terrorists Saddam Qaddafi!!!

[Gregorian]

18. You are now enlightened and conscious.

I knew this as a child. I guess I had bright parents and neighbors.

Just a little story. Once when I was a kid I went to a second hand store and bought a sweatshirt. I didn't know who bob Dole was, but it had his name on it. Someone had tossed a campaign shirt into the Goodwill bin. I wore it to a neighbor's house, and they instantly became furious. I'm so glad I didn't grow up in a podunk idiot town.

It's good to learn these things at any age. Noam spells it out. The forces are there to deny Democracy from ever happening to the extent that they control things. From that context, everything that has happened makes sense.