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WHAT:  Digging Deeper XXIII: Hegemony or Survival
WHO:  Led by Mark Jensen
WHEN:  Monday, October 2, 2006 -- 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE:  Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA

[Flyer text]

United for Peace of Pierce County Study Circle: October 2, 2006

Digging Deeper XXIII:  Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival

On Wed., Sept. 20, 2006, standing before the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held up a copy of Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony and Survival and began his address: “First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, those who have not read this book, to read it. Noam Chomsky is one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, and this is one of his most recent books, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance. It’s an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what’s happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet. The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time, I will just leave it as a recommendation. It reads easily, it is a very good book, I’m sure, Madame President, you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.”

UFPPC’s Monday-evening book discussion series, “Digging Deeper,” is taking up President Chavez’s suggestion, and invites interested members of the public to join in the discussion of Hegemony and Survival. We will not be alone in reading the book. As an astonishing result of Chavez’s suggestion, the paperback edition of Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony and Survival is currently the number-one bestseller on Amazon.com.

· Noam Chomsky, Hegemony and Survial: America’s Quest for Global Dominance (New York: Henry Holt and Company, Metropolitan/Owl, 2004 [paperback]; orig. ed. 2003). “In this highly readable, heavily footnoted critique of American foreign policy from the late 1950s to the present, Chomsky (whose 9-11 was a bestseller last year) argues that current U.S. policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are not a specific response to September 11, but simply the continuation of a consistent half-century of foreign policy—an ‘imperial grand strategy’—in which the United States has attempted to ‘maintain its hegemony through the threat or use of military force.’ Such an analysis is bound to be met with skepticism or antagonism in post-September 11 America, but Chomsky builds his arguments carefully, substantiates claims with appropriate documentation, and answers expected counterclaims. Chomsky is also deeply critical of inconsistency in making the charge of ‘terrorism.’ Using the official U.S. legal code definition of terrorism, he argues that it is an exact description of U.S. foreign policy (especially regarding Cuba, Central America, Vietnam, and much of the Middle East), although the term is rarely used in this way in the U.S. media, he notes, even when the World Court in 1986 condemned Washington for ‘unlawful use of force’ (‘international terrorism, in lay terms’ Chomsky argues) in Nicaragua. Claiming that the U.S. is a rogue nation in its foreign policies and its ‘contempt for international law,’ Chomsky brings together many themes he has mined in the past, making this cogent and provocative book an important addition to an ongoing public discussion about U.S. policy.

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Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County (www.ufppc.org) has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-night book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, Iran, the writings of Robert Baer, and accounts of the invastion and occupation of Iraq, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Occasionally, the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation.

DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.

Participation is free. Hegemony and Survival is available in paperback. Information: contact Mark Jensen (jensenmk@plu.edu; 253-756-7519).

Regular meetings of United for Peace of Pierce County are held at 7:00 p.m. on 1st and 3rd Thursdays at First Congregational Church, 209 South “J” St., Tacoma, WA.