Reviews
Consequences of Capitalism: Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance by Marv Waterstone, Noam Chomsky
nferraro90's review
5.0
It’s Chomsky, ofc it’s getting 5 stars. Also Marv is no slouch himself, as the two dissect the problems handed to us by our ever growing monolith of an economic system. You could say it’s really beyond an economic system, as capitalism seems to be just the way of life, or “capitalist realism” as Mark Fisher calls it. We’re probably screwed, but at least we can die informed :)
vbigv's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
A good primer, although I wish they had spent more time on the “solutions” part which for me was just more problem identification.
osrelar's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
5.0
Una serie de conferencies que expliquen el que ha significat i com influeix a les nostres vides el capitalisme.
hikemogan's review
5.0
The title of this book is something of a misnomer. A worse title (but more accurate description) could be-- to paraphrase Waterstone in the beginning chapter-- "How do you know what you think you know about the world, about politics, and about economics?'
What is "common sense" when it comes to these things? Where does this common sense come from? What are the boundaries of what responsible, respectable intellectuals operate in?
Throughout a semester in 2019, Waterstone and Chomsky taught a class exploring these ideas and this book represents the lectures transcribed. Transcribed extremely faithfully (there are occasional classroom "housekeeping" interjections that could have been removed). The answers that Waterstone and Chomsky lay out are that there's a vast industry/complex reaching into every facet of intellectual and everyday life with a core function to convince us that the status quo is the only way things should and can be. Most of academia, the media, the law, economists, and politicians are "experts in legitimation," in Antonio Gramsci's words. Or to quote Henry Kissinger, "'experts' are those who articulate the consensus of the powerful." A form of intellectual hegemony forms the basis for what is considered "common sense" by a lot of people, laying the table for corporate and military power to do what it has always done.
This is territory that Chomsky has spent his whole career covering. But the combination of Waterstone, laying out the theory in one lecture and Chomsky providing real-life examples in the next made the themes first seen in [b:Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media|12617|Manufacturing Consent The Political Economy of the Mass Media|Edward S. Herman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525166345l/12617._SY75_.jpg|857416] over 30 years ago seem fresh all over again. Some Chomsky interviews and lectures can read like a dispassionate laundry list of imperial atrocities, and while there's no shortage of those events in these lectures, Consequences of Capitalism is compelling gripping reading.
What is "common sense" when it comes to these things? Where does this common sense come from? What are the boundaries of what responsible, respectable intellectuals operate in?
Throughout a semester in 2019, Waterstone and Chomsky taught a class exploring these ideas and this book represents the lectures transcribed. Transcribed extremely faithfully (there are occasional classroom "housekeeping" interjections that could have been removed). The answers that Waterstone and Chomsky lay out are that there's a vast industry/complex reaching into every facet of intellectual and everyday life with a core function to convince us that the status quo is the only way things should and can be. Most of academia, the media, the law, economists, and politicians are "experts in legitimation," in Antonio Gramsci's words. Or to quote Henry Kissinger, "'experts' are those who articulate the consensus of the powerful." A form of intellectual hegemony forms the basis for what is considered "common sense" by a lot of people, laying the table for corporate and military power to do what it has always done.
This is territory that Chomsky has spent his whole career covering. But the combination of Waterstone, laying out the theory in one lecture and Chomsky providing real-life examples in the next made the themes first seen in [b:Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media|12617|Manufacturing Consent The Political Economy of the Mass Media|Edward S. Herman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525166345l/12617._SY75_.jpg|857416] over 30 years ago seem fresh all over again. Some Chomsky interviews and lectures can read like a dispassionate laundry list of imperial atrocities, and while there's no shortage of those events in these lectures, Consequences of Capitalism is compelling gripping reading.