Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

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RogerFarinha
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Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

Post by RogerFarinha »

Anyone read this book? I'd like some open discussions on its contents, particularly the notion of the "Masters of Mankind."
Skip
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Re: Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

Post by Skip »

RogerFarinha wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2017 12:25 am Anyone read this book? I'd like some open discussions on its contents, particularly the notion of the "Masters of Mankind."
No, I haven't read it, but I've listened to a couple of video clips.
Interesting subject - and I see it's already elicited one Pavlovian response.... or maybe it's just patellar reflex.
RogerFarinha
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Re: Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

Post by RogerFarinha »

marjoram_blues wrote: Sat Jul 01, 2017 9:46 am Why don't you carry on regardless and tell us more about the book...
I'm all ears...
Well in a few places in the book Chomsky speaks about the "Masters of Mankind." These are, in my ultimate simplification, the power-wielders in our new capitalistic world due to the replacement of the traditional aristocratic systems of Europe in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. In other words, different historical periods have different "Masters" or "social gods" which are those who stand at the top of the social system. The industrial revolution created a larger capitalist system, and those who managed to accumulate the most wealth gravitated to the top. How are they the "Maters of humanity?"

Because Chomsky proposes that nation-state policy is largely manipulated by these wealth interests. Therefore they are at bottom the rulers of the world in power, through manipulating state policy. Chomsky details in his book how through a myriad of such "manipulations," America, the most powerful state, really only acts as the arm of these "social gods" primarily, and as a "champion" of liberty, democracy and freedom, secondarily--only when actions toward this stead supports the former motivation.

I take Chomsky's implications (if even he might not agree with my distillation of his points to my own, simplified conclusions) one step further. At the end of his book he asks "What are the attitudes" of these "Masters?" I added my own insight here about the ultimate human motivation, after survival, as being that of exercising our "god-complex," our desire to be the god of others--the joy of power and a sense of superiority. I then created an article where I went on to illustrate the social constellation of our modern world through identifying the various "power groups," constituted after the operation of their "god-complex" within their social-economic placements.

I wanted to have open discussions on Chomsky's WHO RULES THE WORLD? because after submitting my article titled "Populism and the 'Masters of Mankind," to Philosophy Now, I am curious whether others might also come to my conclusions...

Roger

PS: As to my "superior" attitude, that just can't be because I have been striving so hard to keep my "god-complex" in check. If however I still give this impression, perhaps it is because my brilliant intellect is indeed god-like to some, who have no recourse but to become "haters!?" Snort, snort...chip chip cheerio...such riffraff, I never!"
marjoram_blues
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Re: Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

Post by marjoram_blues »

RogerFarinha wrote: Sat Jul 01, 2017 6:01 pm
marjoram_blues wrote: Sat Jul 01, 2017 9:46 am Why don't you carry on regardless and tell us more about the book...
I'm all ears...
Well in a few places in the book Chomsky speaks about the "Masters of Mankind." These are, in my ultimate simplification, the power-wielders in our new capitalistic world due to the replacement of the traditional aristocratic systems of Europe in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. In other words, different historical periods have different "Masters" or "social gods" which are those who stand at the top of the social system. The industrial revolution created a larger capitalist system, and those who managed to accumulate the most wealth gravitated to the top. How are they the "Maters of humanity?"

Because Chomsky proposes that nation-state policy is largely manipulated by these wealth interests. Therefore they are at bottom the rulers of the world in power, through manipulating state policy. Chomsky details in his book how through a myriad of such "manipulations," America, the most powerful state, really only acts as the arm of these "social gods" primarily, and as a "champion" of liberty, democracy and freedom, secondarily--only when actions toward this stead supports the former motivation.

I take Chomsky's implications (if even he might not agree with my distillation of his points to my own, simplified conclusions) one step further. At the end of his book he asks "What are the attitudes" of these "Masters?" I added my own insight here about the ultimate human motivation, after survival, as being that of exercising our "god-complex," our desire to be the god of others--the joy of power and a sense of superiority. I then created an article where I went on to illustrate the social constellation of our modern world through identifying the various "power groups," constituted after the operation of their "god-complex" within their social-economic placements.

I wanted to have open discussions on Chomsky's WHO RULES THE WORLD? because after submitting my article titled "Populism and the 'Masters of Mankind," to Philosophy Now, I am curious whether others might also come to my conclusions...

Roger

PS: As to my "superior" attitude, that just can't be because I have been striving so hard to keep my "god-complex" in check. If however I still give this impression, perhaps it is because my brilliant intellect is indeed god-like to some, who have no recourse but to become "haters!?" Snort, snort...chip chip cheerio...such riffraff, I never!"
Thanks for that. I have to say that although I have never read Chomsky, these ideas are not new to me. Perhaps they circulated well after his writings.

As to the ultimate human motivation, after survival, being to exercise a 'god-complex' - I disagree.
I tend to follow Maslow - and climb his pyramid. But I can't talk for mankind as a whole.

I look forward to reading your article in the PN magazine.
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Re: Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

Post by RogerFarinha »

marjoram_blues wrote: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:53 am
As to the ultimate human motivation, after survival, being to exercise a 'god-complex' - I disagree.
I tend to follow Maslow - and climb his pyramid. But I can't talk for mankind as a whole.

I look forward to reading your article in the PN magazine.
You are actually getting to the heart of my personal crossroads in the interpretation of human nature. I am evenly split between seeing humanity as an evolving species, in which case, Maslow's pyramid can be understood as the evolving individual in the context of an evolving human race. On the other hand, I have had exposure to the Christian world view and find in myself a live suspicion that the ultimate way to interpret human nature is not psychologically, but spiritually, in terms of the individual's posture toward the idea of God.

The answer to my question will have profound implications for my American social revitalization movement (see my self-introduction post when I joined this forum). For if we are an evolving species, New American Spring will unleash our human potential and usher in an age of human nobility. I present this interpretation in a free visionary essay here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/705273. If we are however merely a mix of souls, some of which are good and some of which are evil (as determined by our "posture toward God," whether embracing or rejecting LOVE) then New American Spring might only server to unleash a hive of stinging, biting, and clashing souls, speeding up Armageddon, the final cleansing judgment of God.

The verdict is out, but to understand what I am getting at by the spiritual interpretation, you might check out two blogs of mine:

1. The Spiritual Matrix of New American Spring: https://newamericanspring.blogspot.com/ ... rican.html
2. Why be Good: https://newamericanspring.blogspot.com/ ... -good.html

PS: I am a comprehensive kind of thinker, so please excuse my tendency to post many links here. They are a way for me to keep my conversation bite sized and if my points interest my interlockers more, he or she can then check out my more complete arguments...
marjoram_blues
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Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2015 12:50 pm

Re: Chomsky's "Who Rules the World?"

Post by marjoram_blues »

RogerFarinha wrote: Sun Jul 02, 2017 4:52 pm
marjoram_blues wrote: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:53 am
As to the ultimate human motivation, after survival, being to exercise a 'god-complex' - I disagree.
I tend to follow Maslow - and climb his pyramid. But I can't talk for mankind as a whole.

I look forward to reading your article in the PN magazine.
You are actually getting to the heart of my personal crossroads in the interpretation of human nature. I am evenly split between seeing humanity as an evolving species, in which case, Maslow's pyramid can be understood as the evolving individual in the context of an evolving human race. On the other hand, I have had exposure to the Christian world view and find in myself a live suspicion that the ultimate way to interpret human nature is not psychologically, but spiritually, in terms of the individual's posture toward the idea of God.

The answer to my question will have profound implications for my American social revitalization movement (see my self-introduction post when I joined this forum). For if we are an evolving species, New American Spring will unleash our human potential and usher in an age of human nobility. I present this interpretation in a free visionary essay here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/705273. If we are however merely a mix of souls, some of which are good and some of which are evil (as determined by our "posture toward God," whether embracing or rejecting LOVE) then New American Spring might only server to unleash a hive of stinging, biting, and clashing souls, speeding up Armageddon, the final cleansing judgment of God.

The verdict is out, but to understand what I am getting at by the spiritual interpretation, you might check out two blogs of mine:

1. The Spiritual Matrix of New American Spring: https://newamericanspring.blogspot.com/ ... rican.html
2. Why be Good: https://newamericanspring.blogspot.com/ ... -good.html

PS: I am a comprehensive kind of thinker, so please excuse my tendency to post many links here. They are a way for me to keep my conversation bite sized and if my points interest my interlockers more, he or she can then check out my more complete arguments...
OK. I've read enough now, thanks.
Your perspective seems quite similar to that of another poster here, called ken aka 'Me'. Perhaps he is a member of your spiritual movement.
I expect there will be more use of the PN forum as a platform for the selling of a visionary formula. Comparing yourself to Einstein - wow !
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