An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire [Paperback]

Continuing where her earlier non-fiction books left off, Roy once again speaks around the world holding up a harsh light to leaders of economic and military might and power. One thing to note is Roy's wholistic view of resistance to injustice and progress by societies has evolved since her last writings. Many of her earlier speeches and essays stuck to a single issue- this book's speeches create links between economic power or powerlessness, racial or religious violence and the growing worldwide police state, and argues forcefully for a movement to stand up to these linked worldwide trends as a whole.

The speeches have the eloquence Roy's fans have always looked to her for. They also name names and provide numbers for those like me who like more than generalities. An all around great book. Just wish it was longer.

In this fine collection of speeches and essays, Roy stridently argues against the global injustice of imperial democracy, narrow-minded nationalism, corporate fascism, the military industrial complex, privatization, and the ideology of those who would bomb civilians as part of a war campaign with unparalleled passion, clarity and rhetorical flare. Hers is a voice confronting the powers of empire.

With the accuracy of someone weilding linguistic pruning shears, Roy deftly shreds our most sacred doctrines. "Flags", she reminds us, are nothing more than "bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." They are the symbols of our government's imperialist ambitions.

'Freedom' is the mask government wears to "murder, annihilate, and dominate other people." It is the freedom "to finance and sponsor despots and dictators across the world. The freedom to train, arm, and shelter terrorists. The freedom to topple democratically elected governments. The freedom to amass and use weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, and nuclear. The freedom to go to war against any country whose governments it disagrees with. And, most terrible of all, the freedom to commit these crimes against humanity in the name of 'justice', in the name of 'righteousness', in the name of 'freedom'."

Another word Roy takes issue with is 'Liberal Democracy' - a word the US government and its corporate cohorts have twisted, besmirched and spread over the world like an incurable STD. Liberal Democracy is simply a codeword for the type of imperialist market the US foists upon the world. It is a product we in the US sell to other countries, like Iraq, whether they want it or not, and death "is a small price...to pay for the privilege of sampling this new product: Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (bring to a boil, add oil, then bomb)."

"Meanwhile," while we all sit around debating the fate of the biosphere, "down at the mall there's a mid-season sale. Everything's discounted - oceans, rivers, oil, gene pools, fig wasps, flowers, childhoods, aluminum, factories, phone companies, wisdom, wilderness, civil rights, ecosystems, air - all 4.6 billion years of evolution. It's packed, sealed, tagged, valued, and available off the rack (no returns). As for justice," she says, "I'm told it's on offer too."

Roy also takes aim on the War on Terrorism - not for what it is, but for how it's conducted. "The underlying logic of the terrorist attacks, as well as 'retaliatory' wars against governments that 'support terrorism', is the same: both punish citizens for the actions of their governments." Neither Bush nor Osama bin Laden can face this fact, though, which speaks to their overriding similarities: "They both hold people responsible for the actions of their governments. They both believe in the doctrine of collective guilt and collective punishment. Their actions benefit each other greatly." Furthermore, they both converse with with a god who has sanctified their war against 'evil doers' - ie, each other.

The only thing not for sale, it would seem, is Roy's voice. Of all her books, this is by far my favorite. And of all the great social critics - Naom Chomsky, Edward Said, Howard Zinn, Edward Herman, Amy Goodman, Michael Albert, Chalmers Johnson, William Blum, Anthony Arnove - she writes with the most urgency and passion. Her talent is unmatched, her critiques scathing, her prose sublime.

j.w.k.

I have always found Roy's writing style very very compelling. I never thought 'God Of Small Things' was much of a story but the writing style was par-excellence.

In similar vein, these sets of articles / speeches by Roy are written in a very crisp and compelling language with lots of facts (referenced properly)to back them.

Reading the book, one is reminded (or made aware of, depending on your ability to see-through the news) of the wrongs that are being perpetrated on the world today (US's illegal occupation of Iraq, Godhra riots in Gujarat, the `war against terror' charade, the Israel-Palestine conflict).

As a soi-disant responsible and conscientious citizen of the world, I somehow feel ashamed. We are unable to do anything about them. Unable to set them right. That is because, we the people, are powerless. We are reminded, time and again, by Roy how power-less we have all acted. And in doing so, we are doing a dis-service to ourselves and our fellow brethren.

Power is what the book is about. Lord Action's comment that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" seems as relevant today as when it was made in the 19th C. The people who are in power carry out deeds that are, ironically, at variance with what is good for mankind and also at cross purposes with what is beneficial for the poorest of the poor. Instead their actions are meant to fill the overflowing coffers of rich corporations and empires (people like Mr. Cheney). Their actions, which we as citizens of the world should see through and protest, are all about increasing one's power. But then, you ask yourself, don't these leaders (read rulers) derive their power from us people [go back to the lesson on democracy in political science class : demos (people) + cratos (power)]. And oddly the same people who bring cratos to these rulers are cratos-less in influencing their decisions. Why then, Roy argues, would the European countries support the US occupation of Iraq when no more than 11% of their citizens support this illegal occupation? The book is littered with compelling facts like these.

That is the question the book leaves us with. It asks us, why we don't stand up and point out and, in the process, somehow prevent the wrongs being done by our 'democratically' elected presidents and governments. If we all put our minds to it, we can, and should, prevent the blunders that are being made by the George W's of the world.

The book asks more questions than answers them. Yet isn't that what a writer is supposed to do? Bring ideas / questions / doubts in front of others and, through healthy debate, search for answers.

A must read for every citizen of the world who claims to have a conscience (yet does nothing about it).

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