Public Power in the Age of Empire (Open Media) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reading Arundhati Roy is how the peace movement arms itself. She turns our grief and rage into courage." -- Naomi Klein, author of No Logo

"The scale of what Roy surveys is staggering. Her pointed indictment is devastating." -- The New York Times Book Review

Product Description

In her August 16, 2004, address to the 99th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association on "Public Power in the Age of Empire," writer Arundhati Roy brilliantly examines the limits to democracy in the world today. The speech was broadcast nationally on C-Span Book TV, Democracy Now! and Alternative Radio. Bringing the same care to her prose that she brought to her Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things, Roy discusses the need for social movements to contest the occupation of Iraq and the reduction of "democracy" to elections with no meaningful alternatives allowed. She explores the dangers of the "NGO-ization of resistance," shows how governments that block nonviolent dissent in fact encourage terrorism and examines the role of the corporate media in marginalizing oppositional voices.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press (November 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583226826
• ISBN-13: 978-1583226827
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.9 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #321,686 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Justice, October 29, 2009

By	Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Nobody expressed better the existence of an Empire than a president who said `I don't care what the facts are'. In other words, `I (can) always do what I want without any justification.'

In this violent pamphlet, Arundhati Roy attacks the existent world order and the policies of terror under the helm of the one and only hegemon: `the most powerful nation in the world with its unmatchable arsenal of weapons, its history of having waged and sponsored endless wars and the only nation in history to have actually used nuclear bombs is peopled by a terrified citizenry. This synthetically manufactured fear is used to gain public sanction for further aggression.'
Legislation, like the Patriot Act, curbs freedom in the name of protecting freedom. Antiterrorism laws are used to intimidate civil society.

On the economic front, Western countries which together spend more than one billion dollars a day on subsidies to farmers demand that poor countries withdraw all agricultural subsidies.

In the era of neo-liberalism, poverty is a crime and protesting against it is being defined as terrorism. But, for those who are on the wrong side of Empire, the humiliation is becoming unbearable. For some, there is no alternative but terrorism, albeit vicious, ugly and dehumanizing. But so is war waged by the hegemon and its allies.

The alternative to terrorism is justice. For Arundhati Roy, `no amount of nuclear weapons or full-spectrum-dominance can buy peace at the cost of justice.'

With her sharp pen, Arundhati Roy defends violently the mass of the wretched.
Her text is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book of information, September 18, 2009

By	Kaleem "kevin9984" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

I really enjoyed this book, the language, the expressive power, the content and the goal is fabulous. I am very impressed by the author and this book. I highly recommend this book.