Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since 9/11

ISBN-13: 9781594510595 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 193 str.

Paul L. Street

Opis

"This is an impressive collection: well-informed, well-written, covering highly important topics over an impressive range, with no hesitation about taking an honest stand that gets right to the heart of the matter in case after case." Noam Chomsky A frequent columnist in Z magazine, Black Commentator, and other magazines, Paul Street has closely monitored the deterioration of civil liberties since 9/11. In his new book, Street challenges the widely accepted notion that 'everything changed' on 9/11. The event of 9/11 changed the lives of thousands of people in tragic and lasting ways, but some things it did not drastically alter were the long-term goals of the Bush administration. Rather, the terrorist attacks offered a way for them to fully realize these goals, through waging war against fictional enemies abroad and against civil liberties at home. By pointing out rampant injustices in society and doggedly pursuing the blatant contradictions in current government policies, Street reveals a very different America than the government or media portray. Empire and Inequality shows how the jetliner attacks provided a windfall opportunity to accelerate pre-existing trends towards greater global and domestic hierarchy, inequality, and repression. Street shows how the elites of American government and business used classic propaganda mechanisms in pursuit of this regressive and authoritarian agenda in the "post-9/11 era." Street offers a cogent critique of the myth of the powerless state, showing that U.S. government's cup runs over when it comes to serving the wealthy and privileged few and is empty only when it comes to meeting the needs of the non-affluent majority. Empire and Inequality is a powerful reflection on the inseparable, deepening, and mutually reinforcing relationships that exist between empire abroad and inequality and repression at home in the "post 9/11 era."

Spis treści

PART I: OUR TEARS, THEIR OPPORTUNITY. Introduction to Part I. Misunderstanding Power: Explaining the Popularity of 0-11 Conspiracy Theories. Defending Civilization and the Myth of Radical Academia. Toward a "Decent Left"? Liberal-Left Misrepresentation and Selective Targeting of Left Commentary on 9-11. Who Is the Real Criminal: Johnny Taliban or Donny Pentagon? Our Tears, Their Opportunity. Who Hates America? Notes. PART II: MASTERS MARCHING TO WAR. Introduction to Part II. Big Brother Bush, "Suicidal Saddam, and the Homegrown Threat to Liberal Democracy. State of Deception: How Stupid Does the Bush Gang Think We Are? Citizens or Spectators? Democracy Versus Empire on the Eve of "Inevitable War". It's the Empire, Stupid. Broadcast Priorities: Corporate Media Versus Democracy in the Streets. "Ungrateful?" America, France, Hitler, and Debts of History. Moments of Truth, Masters of War. Resist Despair. Bad War: Read "All About It" in the Establishment Press. "Down the Memory Hole" with Weapons of Mass Destruction. Rachel Corrie, Jessica Lynch, and the Unequal Worthiness of Victims. It Hurts to Kill: Like I just Did What the Lord Says Not to Do". Systematic Distortion: Nonrandom Material Falsification and the White House Agenda. Notes. PART III: "THE BEACON TO THE WORLD OF THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE". Introduction to Part III. The Readily Available Reality of American Policy in an Age of Empire and Inequality. Just Don't Call It "Class Warfare": Invisible Neighborhoods, Irrelevant People from Chicago to Baghdad. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall... Deep Poverty, Deep Deception: Facts That Matter Beneath the Imperial Helicopters (Comments to the Illinois Welfare Reform Symposium). Forbidden Connections: Class, Cowardice, and War. Notes.

O autorze

Paul Street