6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
As usual, a must-read, Dec 19 2010
This review is from: Hopes and Prospects (Paperback)
This latest book by Noam Chomsky has a narrative very similar to his other works: exemplified by an impeccably impartial analysis of world events that uncover just how biased US foreign policy and the media are, and how there's a double standard between what applies to 'us' vs. 'them'. A recurring theme of Hopes and Prospects is on the 'democratic deficit' of many Western countries, the US especially, where leaders fail to act according to the population's wishes. Chomsky argues that both Democratic and Republicans leaders are well to the right of the US public opinion on many issues.
One thing I would have liked to see explored in more details in Hopes and Prospects concerns Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. Chomsky claims that the media disingenuously depicts Chavez as autocratic while a study by latinobarometro shows that he still enjoys much popular support. His reliance on a single study (which was published in The Economist) is not very convincing given all the other evidence that points the other way (the latest being parliament allowing him to run the country by decree for the next 18 months).
Overall I really enjoyed reading the book but felt like it was getting a bit repetitive towards the end (could just be that I've read too many of his books lately).
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