POWER AND TERROR: NOAM CHOMSKY IN OUR TIMES gives the public a rare opportunity to see and listen to one of the most articulate, committed, and hard-working political dissidents, MIT linguist political philosopher Noam Chomsky.
Chomsky has been called "the most important intellectual alive" by the New York Times, yet the mainstream in America has generally ignored him. So then, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, Chomsky found himself called upon to provide much-needed analysis and historical perspective regarding this moment in American history. In the months following 9/11, Chomsky gave dozens of talks on four continents, conducted scores of media interviews, and published a book called '9-11'-- a surprise bestseller in some of the 22 countries in which it was published.
Chomsky places the terrorist attacks in the context of American foreign intervention throughout the postwar decades-- in Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Beginning with the fundamental principle that any exercise of violence against civilian populations is terrorism-- regardless of whether the perpetrator is a well-organized band of Muslim extremists or the most powerful nation-state in the world-- Chomsky challenges the United States to apply the moral standards it demands of others to its actions.