Friday, March 15, 2013

Capitalism, Democracy, and Environmental Catastrophe

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New World Notes News
Vol. 6, No.11 -- March 15, 2013

This week in New World Notes, radio program #263, March 19, 2013

Capitalism, Democracy, and Environmental Catastrophe


In brief

Invited to speak on "the future of capitalism," Noam Chomsky first shows that the actual U.S. economic system is very far from real "capitalism." It is essentially socialism-for-corporations. And the political system actually in place is far from "democracy." Chomsky shows why "plutocracy" is the more accurate term.

So Chomsky will discuss not actual capitalism or actual democracy but instead what he calls "really existing capitalist democracy"--the system that actually exists in the United States.

Alas, its future--and that of the planet--seem grim. Chomsky describes how--for the sake of short-term profit--the leaders of the world's most advanced (alleged) capitalist democracy are working hard to bring about environmental catastrophe as rapidly as possible.

In this powerful and moving speech Chomsky again displays his typical clarity, mastery of fact, and deadpan ironic wit.


Notes, credits, & links

Chomsky spoke at Northeastern University, in Boston, on February 25, 2013. Recorded on location by Chuck Rosina.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio. See the gray sidebar on the right ("CONTENTS [Links]") for a table of contents.

Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)
  • March 26 -- TBA
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