Jeffrey Wilson (6)

Noam Chomsky is a man for all media. The latest is a comic called The Instinct for Cooperation. Jeffrey Wilson has parlayed a chance encounter with Chomsky into an interview, and then ancillary interviews, to produce a short comic book on how capitalism keeps people under control by keeping them apart. It works.

The natural instinct is to cooperate, to help, to enjoy the company of others. What capitalism seeks is to keep them apart, ignorant and unable to effect change. The examples in the book include shutting down Mexican-American Studies in Arizona, online courses instead of in person, and the free library at Occupy Wall Street. Student debt has become so crippling that graduates must take the first available job, and have little hope of ever escaping slavery.

These are the symptoms of neoliberalism in control, and make for a shallow, depressed and frustrated life. Chomsky, now 90, is the friendly great uncle, dispensing knowledge, wisdom and experience.

These hundred pages could have transmitted infinitely more information, especially since most of the images are just people being interviewed. But the medium – the comic – gives hope that the messages that are presented will be communicated to a new generation.

David Wineberg… (mere)