Niklas reviewed The precipice by Noam Chomsky (The truthout collection)
Review of 'The precipice' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
My full review is found here.
*
The title for this book is no exaggeration: we are standing at the precipice in our time, the tipping point where we decide the fate of humanity.
This book is a collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, linguist, political dissident, and intellectual extraordinaire. Chomsky has been phenomenally outstanding in each of those fields for decades, and now, in his nineties, he is yet again proving that he is not slowing down in the least.
The most topical subjects discussed in this book are the most urgent ones:
- The climate catastrophe.
- Neoliberalism and Republicans.
- What can be done/optimism.
Chomsky carries so much intellectual heft that he could be regarded as daunting if it weren't for his clear and brief conversation about complex matters. He is expert at unfurling his thoughts by using simply-understood sentences.
One of the most appropriate comments …
My full review is found here.
*
The title for this book is no exaggeration: we are standing at the precipice in our time, the tipping point where we decide the fate of humanity.
This book is a collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, linguist, political dissident, and intellectual extraordinaire. Chomsky has been phenomenally outstanding in each of those fields for decades, and now, in his nineties, he is yet again proving that he is not slowing down in the least.
The most topical subjects discussed in this book are the most urgent ones:
- The climate catastrophe.
- Neoliberalism and Republicans.
- What can be done/optimism.
Chomsky carries so much intellectual heft that he could be regarded as daunting if it weren't for his clear and brief conversation about complex matters. He is expert at unfurling his thoughts by using simply-understood sentences.
One of the most appropriate comments I've seen on Trump's foreign policy appeared in an article in the New Republic written by David Roth, the editor of a sports blog: “The spectacle of expert analysts and thought leaders parsing the actions of a man with no expertise or capacity for analysis is the purest acid satire - but less because of how badly that expert analysis has failed than because of how sincerely misplaced it is...there is nothing here to parse, no hidden meanings or tactical elisions or slow-rolled strategic campaign."
Chomsky's method of answering questions should be a lodestar and template for intellectuals: simple and easily understandable sentences that quickly nail down what the speaker means. True to fashion, Chomsky doesn't simply answer questions but makes matters slightly more contextual by providing history and clarity. There is nobody else that I know of, who does this as expertly as Chomsky.