An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire

by Arundhati Roy

Book Overview

Just in time for the elections, Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about "compassionate conservativism" and "the war on terror." Roy... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896087271
• ISBN13: 9780896087279
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: South End Press
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Book to Make you Squirm

Roy is a controversial writer. Her insights and conclusions often make the reader, if from the west, uncomfortable about the unfolding economy and world relationships with India. Having traveled in India a number of times, and having many Indian friends, this book highlights little understood cultural and economic issues taking place in one of the world's exploding economies. Whether you agree with Roy's conclusions or not, a reader wanting to be more aware of the expanding global economy on the Subcontinent will find this book a starting point for reflection and informed connection with India and its complex cultural relationship with the west.

Imperial mix democracy

Arundhati Roy's book "An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire" is a collection of essays and speeches compiled into a book. While some people may be disappointed in the format and the repetition of some information, that does not detract from her brilliance as one of the most prolific writers of our time. Roy speaks from the heart with justice in mind, and her incisive and witty commentary is devoid of any religious, political, or racial bias. She is one of those rare voices of reason in a progressively insane world, warning us of the danger and consequences from large corporations in the name of "imperial mix democracy".

Passionate and compassionate

This is a very moving and persuasive work, exactly the sort of passionate argument one should be able to expect from writers of Roy's power, lucidity and ethical stand, yet so often we are disappointed. I would recommend any of her books to readers wanting readable pamphlet-style pieces on hot topics, but this is very much my favorite. An excellent introduction to a topic of our times.

The raw, real, and often vicious truth

Award-winning writer Arundhati Roy presents An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire, an anthology of her lectures and essays highlighting the injustice, greed, and corruption behind the "poverty draft" of the United States (in which the military is disproportionately made of individuals of indigent backgrounds, and very, very few politicians have a child serving in Iraq), murderous pogroms against Muslims in India with atrocities that bring so-called ethnic cleansing to mind, the transformation of South Africa that ultimately only further concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a few, and more. From the obsessive nature of crisis reporting in the media that ignores underlying problems and history, or summarizes them in a backward progression if at all, to propaganda as a tool of empire-building, to the ruthlessness of the police state in so-called "democracies" that get their hands as bloody as any fascist, An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire spares nothing in its effort to show the raw, real, and often vicious truth. Highly recommended.

Bring to a Boil, add Oil, then Bomb

In this fine collection of speeches and essays, Roy stridently argues against the global injustice of imperial democracy, narrow-minded nationalism, corporate fascism, the military industrial complex, privatization, and the ideology of those who would bomb civilians as part of a war campaign with unparalleled passion, clarity and rhetorical flare. Hers is a voice confronting the powers of empire. With the accuracy of someone weilding linguistic pruning shears, Roy deftly shreds our most sacred doctrines. "Flags", she reminds us, are nothing more than "bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." They are the symbols of our government's imperialist ambitions. 'Freedom' is the mask government wears to "murder, annihilate, and dominate other people." It is the freedom "to finance and sponsor despots and dictators across the world. The freedom to train, arm, and shelter terrorists. The freedom to topple democratically elected governments. The freedom to amass and use weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, and nuclear. The freedom to go to war against any country whose governments it disagrees with. And, most terrible of all, the freedom to commit these crimes against humanity in the name of 'justice', in the name of 'righteousness', in the name of 'freedom'." Another word Roy takes issue with is 'Liberal Democracy' - a word the US government and its corporate cohorts have twisted, besmirched and spread over the world like an incurable STD. Liberal Democracy is simply a codeword for the type of imperialist market the US foists upon the world. It is a product we in the US sell to other countries, like Iraq, whether they want it or not, and death "is a small price...to pay for the privilege of sampling this new product: Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (bring to a boil, add oil, then bomb)." "Meanwhile," while we all sit around debating the fate of the biosphere, "down at the mall there's a mid-season sale. Everything's discounted - oceans, rivers, oil, gene pools, fig wasps, flowers, childhoods, aluminum, factories, phone companies, wisdom, wilderness, civil rights, ecosystems, air - all 4.6 billion years of evolution. It's packed, sealed, tagged, valued, and available off the rack (no returns). As for justice," she says, "I'm told it's on offer too." Roy also takes aim on the War on Terrorism - not for what it is, but for how it's conducted. "The underlying logic of the terrorist attacks, as well as 'retaliatory' wars against governments that 'support terrorism', is the same: both punish citizens for the actions of their governments." Neither Bush nor Osama bin Laden can face this fact, though, which speaks to their overriding similarities: "They both hold people responsible for the actions of their governments. They both believe in the doctrine of collective guilt and collective punishment. Their actions benefit each other greatly." Furthermore,