Noam Chomsky Critical Essay | Critical Review by Neve Gordon

Critical Review by Neve Gordon

SOURCE: “Neoliberals' Paleomarkets,” in The Nation, June 14, 1999, pp. 34, 36.

In the following review, Gordon offers positive evaluation of Profit Over People, though notes contradictions concerning the incompatibility of social justice and free trade.

In a book of interviews published a few years ago, Chronicles of Dissent, Noam Chomsky recounted a childhood incident that shaped his life. One day during first grade, a group began taunting a fat boy from his class. Chomsky wanted to defend him but fled instead. Following the event he was totally ashamed, and he determined never again to run away. “That's the feeling that stuck with me,” he says. “You should stick with the underdog.” Sixty-five years have passed, and Chomsky remains faithful to that commitment, as evidenced by Profit Over People, his new book.

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