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Life is but a Dream

The legend of Noam Chomsky began with his being known as the father of modern linguistics. Later on, his attention turned to politics, and his disdain for America's involvement in the Vietnam War. He has since become a major critic of American politics, in general, and inequality among the citizenry, in particular.

In Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott's "Requiem for the American Dream", Chomsky talks about inequality becoming wider between the ultra-rich in America and everyone else in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The short documentary is divided into ten sections, all of which explain why we are in such a bad place economically, but he only addresses ways to turn it around in a relatively short snippet at the end. His belief is that only a real populism that rises from below can bring about meaningful change and he points out when it has happened in America's past.

Chomsky's central point is that the perception of America as being a true democracy is untrue in practice even if it is true in the beliefs of the American people. He takes us back to the framers and points out that even then the battle lines were drawn by the powerful against those without power. One of his sources is the writings of famed political economist, Adam Smith. He wrote that the desires of the rich and powerful cannot be without sacrificing the desires of those without any power.

Chomsky's belief, and it's hard to disagree after listening to him, is that it is in the interest of the rich to stop real democracy from ever taking hold, because if it does, those without power will help tilt the power away from those sitting in power. He goes on to explain that only when people do rise up, can real change be effected. For example, the rise of labor unions wrested some power from the corporations and the marches on Washington by Martin Luther King wrested some power from the government. Chomsky also explains that the government and corporations will push, and always have pushed back even harder, in response, to what they perceive as threats.

The problem with the film is the same as reading Chomsky's writings. It leaves you feeling enlightened but also leaves you with a sense of hopelessness that meaningful change will ever occur. The film is well-made, with no fat. Everything is in easy to understand language and its concepts are clearly defined. However, after watching it, I couldn't help but believe that it has zero chance of changing a thing. Maybe all we can do is to try and enjoy ourselves and pretend we don't know what is really going on.