Requiem for the American Dream

Noam Chomsky, the MIT linguistics professor whose leftist critiques of U.S. government policies have spawned a virtual cottage industry of documentaries, here offers a disquisition on income inequality in the United States, which has emerged as a major political issue in recent years. In Chomsky's view, the problem is neither new nor accidental: it results from a system of governance founded on principles that can be traced back to Aristotle, although among the American founders he identifies James Madison as particularly influential. Simply put, Chomsky argues that from the very beginning, the U.S. political process has been engineered to maintain the power of the wealthy and influential against dangerously democratic tendencies, a system that since 1980 has been ever more strengthened to serve the interests of the super-rich. Chomsky, speaking gently but insistently in interviews recorded over several years, lays out 10 principles that effectively lead to the subversion of democracy, including manufacturing majority consent and manipulating election outcomes through techniques derived from mass-market advertising, marginalizing segments of the population, and making sure that regulators are themselves regulated so they will not infringe on opportunities for profiteering. Chomsky suggests that organized resistance might impede the current system, but expresses no optimism regarding that possibility (and admits to his own lack of organizational skill). Even if you don't agree with Chomsky, whose words here are accompanied by well-chosen visual montages and clever animated segments, it's hard to deny that at 87 he still presses his viewpoints with undiminished conviction. Recommended. [Note: this is also available on DVD with public performance rights for $249 from Zeitgeist Films, www.zeitgeistfilms.com.] Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)