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Occupy (Occupied Media Pamphlet Series, 1) Paperback – May 1, 2012
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Having spent so much time thinking about and engaging with social movements, Chomsky is both optimistic about the energy of Occupy and realistic about the challenges it faces. He appreciates the just do it” ethos and embraces its radical approach to participatory democracy What makes Chomsky’s perspective so interesting, aside from the wealth of his political experience, is the range of his interests. He draws from examples around the world to demonstrate his points. ...It’s a big agenda that Occupy has identified, nothing less than a complete renewal of U.S. society and the U.S. role in the world. Chomsky sees not only the radical agenda but also the radical practice of the Occupiers. Part of what functioning, free communities like the Occupy communities can be working for and spreading to others is just a different way of living, which is not based on maximizing consumer goods, but on maximizing values that are important for life,” he concludes in this valuable set of remarks and interviews.”
John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus, Pick Review
For decades, Chomsky has been marginalized for his insightful, levelheaded, and accurate observations about how our society functions. In Occupy, Chomsky... sets the record straight. And he’s got an answer for everything. It’s necessary,” Chomsky warns, to get out into the country and get people to understand what this is about, and what they can do about it, and what the consequences are of not doing anything about it.” Occupy begins with a powerful editor’s note from Greg Ruggiero, who comments on the heartlessness and inhumanity of the system,’ where people’s stolen homes are sold off to the highest bidder.’ And if it isn’t obvious to those who are still asking what the demands of Occupy Wall Street are, Ruggiero puts it plainly: Occupy embodies a vision of democracy that is fundamentally antagonistic to the management of society as a corporate-controlled space that funds a political system to serve the wealthy, ignore the poor.’ One can only cringe at the thought of what will happen if we continue to ignore the wisdom of Noam Chomsky. He gives a clue in Occupy
.”
The Coffin Factory, The Magazine for People who Love Books
Occupy is another vital contribution from Chomsky to the literature of defiance and protest, and a red-hot rallying call to forge a better, more egalitarian future."
Alternet
Chomsky advocates intelligent activism by those who see the divorce between public policy and public opinion. He is both optimistic and realistic towards this first major public response to 30 years of class war.”
IRISH TIMES, PICK REVIEW
Occupy, is at once a vivid portrait of the now-global movement and a practical guide to intelligent activism, infused with Chomsky’s signature meditations on everything from how the wealthiest 1% came to steer society to what a healthy democracy would look like to how we can separate money from politics. Alongside Chomsky’s words are some of the most moving and provocative photographs from the Occupy movement. ... [One of] 10 essential books on protest.”
Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
In Occupy, Chomsky discusses the cornerstone issues, questions and demands that have been driving ordinary Americans to critique the influence of the "1%." The book begins and ends with Chomsky celebrating the life and work of his longtime friend and colleague, Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States. As a call to action, Chomsky encourages people to continue organizing, to continue struggling, and to continue defending citizenship and community-driven democracy from predation from the relentless encroachments of wealth and corporate power.
- Print length128 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherZuccotti Park Press
- Publication dateMay 1, 2012
- Dimensions4.25 x 0.4 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101884519016
- ISBN-13978-1884519017
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Product details
- Publisher : Zuccotti Park Press; Occupied Media Pamphlet Series (Book 1) edition (May 1, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 128 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1884519016
- ISBN-13 : 978-1884519017
- Item Weight : 4.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.25 x 0.4 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,433,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #797 in Income Inequality
- #4,664 in Democracy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy, and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He has spent more than half a century at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is Institute Professor Emeritus, and is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/culturaargentina [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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First, he gives a timeline overview of the history of American big business and the rise of corporate cronyism. He states that the 1970s saw the initial surge of movement towards a corporate-controlled state, supported with historical points of evidence. He covers the culmination of the 2008 financial collapse--the event that triggered the Occupy movement.
Next, interviewers ask him what he suggests be our solution. He answers (very thoroughly as Chomsky always does) that OWS should not be concerned about adopting a leader, as there is not a partisan ideology at play here. He explains it as a shift in power from the few with the most money to the People as a public. He delves specifically into the mechanisms of his own ideal free society, but ultimately comes back to more immediately realistic actions. He specifically promotes the takeover of businesses by its workers. His ultimate anarchist vision is a worker-owned business landscape, where each person who performed work for a company had substantial stake in the success of the company, rather than the traditional hierarchic-corporate model of business. Whether you are a proponent of communal-anarchist theory or not, Chomsky raises valuable, logical solutions to many of the immediate problems that permeate our corrupt government and economy.
My reaction: Occupy has established its roots and hopefully continues to grow. I personally support the regulation of Wall Street, the prosecution of criminal activity there, and the ending of the era of "Too Big To Fail." But I think in order for something to truly change, there must be a huge, uniting change of heart among the people. Look at Turkey. There you have people across the entire political spectrum uniting together to oppose their overly-authoritarian gov't. We haven't yet achieved that type of self-realization as a country. We currently have too many who are apathetic, unwilling to do anything about it because Washington D.C. and Wall Street are such distant places to most Americans. Many of them are not willing to take the risks involved with standing up and changing the system. I'm not talking about an anarchist takeover. I'm only talking about ridding the government of its corrupt, rotting, money-hungry infrastructure and restoring once again the truly representative democratic republic that was meant to govern our country from the start.
Vote with your dollars. Shop locally. Participate in your community. Elect real local leaders first to start a movement from the bottom up--it's the only way we'll get it done, because we can't rely on our national leaders to change an engrained culture of corruption.
This short pamphlet nr. #1 of the Occupied Media includes a series of talks with Noam Chomsky, by remembering Howard Zinn. As Howard Zinn was quoted to say with regards to a power governments cannot suppress:
"The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces as money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a a power greater than money or weapons: the truth. Truth has a power of its own. Art has a power of its own. That age-old lesson, that everything we do matters, is the meaning of the people's struggle here in the United States and everywhere. A poem can inspire a Movement. A pamphlet can spark a revolution. Civil disobedience can arouse people and provoke us to think, when we organize with one another, wen we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress. We live in a beautiful country. But people who have no respect for human life, freedom, or justice have taken it over. It is now up to all of us to take it back".
As Noam Chomsky writes, the developments that have been happening (mainly since the '70s where the financialization of the economy really took off) are unprecedented in human history. Wealth and Power are concentrated in the hands of the international finance and the corporate-governed society serves the rich élite but ignores the poor(er). He considers the Occupy Movement as the first major public response to the neo-liberal globalization underway, a major popular reaction of a huge number of people who do not believe in the $ystem anymore.
Fact is that many people around the globe do not even know that this is happening; hence, this pamphlet can be considered either as a blueprint for the Movement and as a educational for those who do not yet know and an inspirational little book for the ones who are already fighting against the inhumanity of the $ystem.
In conclusion, one might say that knowledge and a better society never come from just reading a book but by understanding, learning, participating and experiencing the world. Trying to make it a better and a more humane place than it has become. Individual and collective responsibility are needed.
All the best,
Ciao
Francesco
