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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Who Rules the World? summary
Noam Chomsky
Explore the Hidden Powers That Govern Our World Today
18 mins
Brief summary
Who Rules the World? offers a critical analysis of global power dynamics, emphasizing the influence of the United States. Noam Chomsky examines historical and contemporary issues, revealing the hidden forces shaping international policies and conflicts.
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Who Rules the World?
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A tale of two September 11s
September 11: the date when a foreign entity, intent on overthrowing order, attacked a peaceful democracy. The president was assassinated. Backed by foreign interests, a military dictatorship was installed. With the support of those same foreign interests, the dictatorship installed similar violent regimes in countries throughout the region.
To clarify: this is September 11, 1973 – the day a US-backed military coup toppled the Chilean government of Salvador Allende and replaced it with the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
This September 11 was part of a broader US effort to suppress the rise of Communism and radical leftist movements in Latin America. Throughout the Cold War, the US viewed Communism in Latin America as a destabilizing force that could disrupt US influence in the Western Hemisphere. "Radical Catholicism" – inspired by the liberation theology movement, which called for social justice for the poor – further alarmed US elites. Under President Kennedy, the National Security Doctrine was implemented, transforming Latin American militaries into counterinsurgency forces trained to suppress leftist movements. A stark example: Colombia. In 1962, US Colonel William Yarborough advised the creation of US-trained paramilitary death squads to target peasants, activists, and suspected Communists. These tactics sparked a pattern of state violence across Latin America, with similar squads engaging in extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and torture in countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Argentina.
Let’s turn, now, to the second, more infamous, September 11 – 2001’s terrorist attacks, in which al Qaeda operatives carried out coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York City, and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people: a tragic, unforgivable loss of human life.
In response, President Bush launched the War on Terror, reigniting policies reminiscent of earlier administration’s efforts to suppress Latin American insurgents. The US launched invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The human cost was staggering. The financial burden of these ongoing conflicts is projected to reach trillions. Some analysts argue that, in pursuing these costly and destabilizing wars, the USA played directly into Osama bin Laden’s hands. Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer even remarked that the US became “bin Laden’s greatest ally.”
What do the contrasting stories of the two September 11s reveal? They expose a deep contradiction in US foreign policy – how narratives are manipulated to serve strategic interests. The United States has, at different times, upheld democracy or crushed it, condemned totalitarianism or bolstered it, depending on what served its agenda. This is a double standard that shifts based on strategic convenience rather than – contrary to the USA’s own rhetoric – any consistent moral principle.
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What is Who Rules the World? about?
Who Rules the World (2016) is a powerful critique of the institutions that exercise global power. With a scope that takes in the war on terror, climate change, nuclear proliferation, and constitutional law, it shows how political and financial elites consistently act in their own interests and against the global good.
Who should read Who Rules the World??
- Activists working to dismantle corrupt and inequitable global power structures
- Environmentalists who value planet over profit
- Anyone interested in ensuring humanity’s survival
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