The Myth of American Idealism

September 15, 2024
Americans have been raised to believe in American exceptionalism; that it is, in metaphorical terms, "the shining city on the hill." In his new book, Chomsky, one of this country's most esteemed political theorists--and one of its harshest critics--argues that a lot of what we've been told about that "shining city" is a myth. He argues that it's not necessarily a lie, but he makes a strong case that even well-meaning leaders can find a way to excuse some of the worst acts under the cloak of virtue and morality. Chomsky knows his history, and history is replete with examples of America's bad and selfish acts. But the aspirational nature of the American mindset cannot be ignored, Chomsky admits, and sometimes genuine idealism breaks through--such as in the nation's entrance into WWII, the antiwar movement during Vietnam, and today's support of Ukraine. Chomsky makes many valid criticisms of America's policies and, for any thoughtful reader, provides endless fodder for spirited debate.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 19, 2024
Safeguarding democracy, the long-standing stated aim of American foreign policy, is actually cover for America’s desire to control other countries’ resources, according to this blistering polemic. Philosopher Chomsky (On Cuba) and Current Affairs editor Robinson (Responding to the Right) argue that Americans’ perception of their country as one based on principles, rather than merely the interests of its citizens, allows U.S. leaders to position the “national interest” as outweighing the rights of people abroad. Tracing this line of thinking across American foreign interventions since WWII (most of which were anti-democratic, the authors argue), they aim to show how the bald-faced imperialism of the early 20th century was papered over by this new logic of “the national interest,” which used the supposed challenges to democracy posed by communism, and later “terrorism,” as an excuse for resource-motivated adventurism. At times, Chomsky and Robinson’s perception of all forms of governance as fundamentally insincere can come off as reductive, like when they assert that the 20th-century “ruling ideologies” of the U.S. and the Soviet Union “were largely false” and that, instead, both countries were dominated by a self-interested elite. However, the authors’ top-versus-bottom analysis becomes strikingly perceptive in a final chapter analyzing how today a global elite benefits from world-killing fossil fuels. This offers rich food for thought.