Occupy
Occupied Media Pamphlet Series
by Noam Chomsky


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book is intended as a "User Manual" for the Occupy movement. To be useful, it needed to be produced quickly, so it comprises a question-and-answer format, plus a special section at the end on how to handle legal aspects of occupying public spaces. Overall, it has a quick-and-dirty feel to it: more like something self-published than Chomsky's usually more thoughtful style which includes some "big picture" insights. The only real insight in this book is that Chomsky was very supportive of the Occupy movement, as a public response to corporatism (one of Chomsky's "big picture" topics). Because the Occupy movement fizzled, this book

Noam Chomsky is part of the OnTheIssues series of political pundits. Chomsky's position is as the "philosophical basis" on the left -- observing his viewpoints, one can see that Ralph Nader, for example, founded many of his political views based on Chomsky. That's the purpose of our "political pundit" list -- to provide information about where current political viewpoints come from.

As far as this book goes, it is certainly not Chomsky's best work. To get a better overview of Chomsky's views, see the list below of his more thorough works. Chomsky's focus has primarily been on international issues -- certainly including corporate international issues. But this book is about domestic issues, and hence Chomsky's usually-solid basis feels diluted here.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, Jan. 2015

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Budget & Economy     Austerity in a period of recession makes situation worse.     2008 real estate bubble came from increasing role of finance.

Civil Rights     Our grandmothers were hopelessly oppressed & didn't know it.

Corporations     "Occupy" is first public response in class war in 30 years.     Sit-down strikes really frighten the business world.     Abolish corporate personhood via Constitutional Amendment.     Wealth distribution is heavily weighted to top tenth of 1%.     Occupy movement put "income inequality" on the agenda.     Stakeholders should have as high priority as shareholders.     Hand over reconstructed auto industry to the auto workers.

Government Reform     Concentrated wealth yields concentrated political power.     Public policy has become divorced from public opinion.     Members of Congress literally buy power within Congress.

Homeland Security     Our military is not for defense; rein it in.

Jobs     Recession unemployment jobs won't come back.     Spread "industrial democracy" of worker-owned enterprises.

Technology     Scandal that Amtrak runs at same speed as in 1950s.

War & Peace     Iraq War was first war where massive protest preceded war.

Welfare & Poverty     "Precariat": precarious existence at periphery of society.     GOP proposals take chain saw to safety net.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Noam Chomsky