A Call To Arms

The essential purpose of this book is a call to arms to the general population against society’s wealthy elites and their coordinated efforts to concentrate political power into their hands. Chomsky carefully defines the roots and motivations of this effort before devoting a section in each chapter to suggesting how the population can counter these efforts. He admits toward the end of the text that “there is no general remedy,” but instead there is activism, which he has a long personal history with (148). Today, there are some forms of “popular mobilization and activism, but in very self-destructive directions” that place the growing lower-class at risk (140). Self-destructive, to Chomsky, means “based on hate and fear,” ultimately making “people hate and fear each other” (141). These concepts undermine the meaning of real activism, which to Chomsky is based on solidarity.

Demanding accountability is one of the most...