Michael Parenti
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Dr. Michael Parenti (born 1933) is an American political scientist and historian. As of June 2004, he has had 250 published articles and seventeen books.
Parenti has described himself as a Marxist, though he maintains that the commentary in the U.S. often distorts this term.
His book, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Books by Michael Parenti
- Democracy for the Few
- Dirty Truths
- Against Empire
- The Sword and the Dollar
- Inventing Reality
- Blackshirts & Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
- America Besieged
- History as Mystery
- The Terrorism Trap: September 11 and Beyond
- The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome
- Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America
- To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia
- Superpatriotism
Selected quotes
"The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology."
"A nation as such does not give aid to another nation. More precisely, the common citizens of our country, through their taxes, give to the privileged elites of another country. As someone once said: foreign aid is when the poor people of a rich country give money to the rich people of a poor country."
"The US government has given over $200 billion dollars in military aid to some eighty nations since World War II. US weapons sales abroad have grown to about $10 billion a year and compose about 70 percent of all arms sold on the international marketplace. Two million foreign troops and hundreds of thousands of foreign police and paramilitary have been trained, equipped, and financed by the United States. Their purpose has not been to defend their countries from outside invasion but to protect foreign investors and the ruling elites of the recipient nations from their own potentially rebellious populations."
"I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own.... And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the 'haves' refuse to share with the 'have-nots' by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans."
External link
- Michael Parenti Political Archive (http://www.michaelparenti.org)
- Talks by Michael Parenti (http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=search&nav=&session=&searchtext=michael+parenti) - MP3 format.