I consider Understanding Power an essential read, but really soured on Chomsky as a person when he defended his going to Epstein’s island meetings with Epstein. I still think people should read him but not glorify him.
Edit: there is no evidence, as far as I’m aware, Chomsky went to Epstein’s Island. I misremembered.
FYI the notion that hierarchical oppression is natural to humans is misinformed. There’s plenty of archaeological and anthropological evidence of a wide variety of social systems, ranging from rigid hierarchy to flat social structures with no hierarchy whatsoever. So no, it hasn’t been like that since humans were in caves, and justifying the current order as natural is way more cringe than pointing out that most of recorded history is defined by struggle between the owners and the owned.
No actually you are totally right and I’ve made a big mistake. I thought I remembered him going to the island, but he just met with him a couple times. His reaction was pretty poor, but I don’t think there’s evidence he went to his island. I’ll edit my comment. Thanks for pointing that out.