America has deviated widely from the ideals of capitalism and instead implemented a neoliberal imperialistic economic policy, said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor emeritus of linguistics Noam Chomsky.
Chomsky explored this theory during a discussion with writer Sasha Lilley, the program director of KPFA radio in Berkeley, Calif., at Raven Used Books on Tuesday.
Chomsky and Lilley, author of “Capital and its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult,” examined the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism in today’s society in front of an audience of about 75 Bostonians and students as part of the Raven Used Books’ first sponsored event.
“Ideas help us to build the kind of alternative world our hopes encompass,” Lilley said. “It is a tumultuous time we are living as us liberals are constantly predicting the break down of capitalism. Now that a real crisis is here we hope that people will realize that capitalism is bad and needs to be replaced.”
Lilley said that despite the economic crisis, capitalism has emerged stronger as more competition is eliminated.
“Who would have thought that a few years after the economic crisis, capitalism is better than ever,” Lilley said. “And despite the fact that a large number of Americans are unemployed, the luxury market is booming as champagne sales and luxury car sales are growing.”
During times of economic crisis the gap between rich and poor grows more, she said, and as a result it is now the largest it has been in 100 years.
“The response from the left progressives and radicals has been timid,” Lilley said. “It’s easier to imagine the end of world than end of capitalism. Utopianism in the broadest sense has been abandoned.”
However, Chomsky disagreed, arguing that America does not practice true capitalism.
“It is misleading to say that the recession has caused a triumph of capitalism,” Chomsky said. “In reality it shows how widely we’ve deterred from a capital system. . .Goldman Sachs would be panhandling on the streets, but because we live in a nanny state they paid them off.”
Chomsky said that what we currently live in is a “neoliberal” society, or old-fashioned imperialism where society relies on a powerful state and on the small number of those at the top to rescue them if needed.
“The world is getting more diverse and less easy to possess at will,” Chomsky said. “I don’t think neoliberalism is that effective, in the past if America didn’t like what they were doing they would organize a coup, but there have only been a few in past decade.”
Chomsky also argued that if we cannot even accomplish coups in South America, it will be impossible to “control” the rest of the world.
As the relationships that the United States has with their allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are weakening, we are beginning to become less of a force, he said.
“I found it very interesting, especially the comments he made about the Middle East concerning Saudi Arabia and Egypt. I really like it when Noam talks about politics,” said Alaa Alsharif, a resident of Saudi Arabia who hopes to attend a college in Boston in the fall.
Other students believed that the key to advancement in economics is to be active in the change.
“It’s not really a question of capitalism but it’s an issue of defining the problem,” said Nick Gauthier, a Boston University College of Arts and Sciences sophomore.
“I think the key point is the feedback, essentially so if you’re dealing with wealth you need to do something because the people who actually have the power to change don’t,” he said. “I think that the important thing is to organize people that want change and figure out how they can actually bring it about.”
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