This is accessible, non-exhortative Noam Chomsky and although the focus of this dissertation of his is the systemic dismantling of American idealism, the questions that he raises certainly finds resonance in the countless democratic struggles against concentrated wealth and power in lands spread out across the globe, India included. Economic inequality, more than ever, is at the heart of the agonies of a majority populace embattled on all fronts, and their suffering made more acute by what Chomsky delineates as the ten principles of the concentration of wealth and power, principles articulated by the self interests of Adam Smith‘s minuscule minority, the “masters of mankind” following the vile maxim of “all for ourselves and nothing for anyone else.” These principles are: 1. Reduce Democracy, 2. Shape Ideology, 3. Redesign the Economy, 4. Shift the Burden, 5. Attack Solidarity, 6. Run the Regulators, 7. Engineer Elections, 8. Keep the Rabble in Line, 9. Manufacture Consent, 10. Marginalize the Population. Through each of these sections, Chomsky scans through historical developments, and key ideas that shaped an age, and how those with access to concentrated wealth and power, did all they could to destroy equal and ideal aspirations, with grave consequences to the well-being of very large numbers of peoples. Although bearing the sombre and rather dreary title of a ‘requiem’, it is a saddened Chomsky who hints at a possibility of change, reminding us of significant resistance by unknowns, quoting historian Howard Zinn “…what matters is the countless small deeds of unknown people, who lay the basis for the significant events that enter history.” Watch.

Part 1

Part 2

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