"Now I call him Milton"
...the appeal of these ideas, I think, to politicians who are actually in over their head on economics—and, by the way, this goes for military dictators, too, like Pinochet—who get control over a country and are totally clueless about how to run an economy, is that it lets them off the hook completely. It says government is the problem, not the solution. Leave it to the market. Laissez-faire. Don’t do anything. Just undo. Get out of the way. Leave it to us. link
Labels: apocalyptic economics, arnold schwarzenegger, Democracy Now, john sydney McCain III, milton friedman, Naomi Klein, Sarah Palin
posted by Tom Matrullo at Monday, October 06, 2008
9 Comments:
who get control over a country and are totally clueless about how to run an economy, is that it lets them off the hook completely. It says government is the problem, not the solution. Leave it to the market. Laissez-faire.
Deliciously simple, and effective to date. Fits well with societies dedicated to "making" money and filled with sound bites and elevator pitches
If that were the worst of it, we'd be ok. But there's this
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/10/mccain-who-is-the-real-barack.html
and, of course, the people who believe it. People who have been watching Beverly Hillbillies reruns for the past 48 years, or Star Trek, or As the World Burns, or Dynasty, or Merkinaidol, who haven't picked up a book, seen the inside of a library, attended a lecture, or visited a museum, examined the veins of a rock, a fish or a tree, yet who spawn in numbers to powerfully influence the direction of the nation.
Projection, pure and simple. One imagines that McBush did not watch the Guv's advertisement the other night.
Deeply cynical and the real pity is that the politicians know it works. It seems to be the classic m.o. that people call Rovian.
I don't believe Obama is a saviour or will introduce much real change, and the work is much more uphill today (at least no what was going on is more visible, and I must bray an obligatory "Thank goodness for the Internets and comedy shows") but at a minimum you get a weak sense that the man is earnest and wants to try to be more honest than the game allows.
I suspect that we are now solidly into an era where events (will) overtake the capabilities of the system and its people, which history tells us are times in which horrible and brutal authoritarianism flourishes.
In many senses it's already here ... I am finding it more and more interesting that the caricatures portrayed in the movie Idiocracy seem much closer than 500 years into the future.
I'm overdosing on head-cracking absurdity these days, it feels like. I'm intellectually aware of the "haven't picked up a book ... examined the veins of a raock, a fish or a tree" but it too feels like it can't really be real (h/t de Zengotita).
I'm also aware that we collectively are 7 times more people on the planet than 150 years ago, and I think that this variable alone complexifies things greatly re: history offering antecedents.
Glad to be alive now, of course.
I wonder when - because it's bound to happen - Son of Cain and his flute tickling pal will drop the threadbare pretenses and turn to whatever scarum techniques will enrage some hairball to crawl out of his lair with a gun.
The more critical the state of the nation becomes, the more uncritical become those who speak of and for the nation state.
Everything is off the table - including the real stuff like:
The American whatchadewey, the people, back in 2006 sent a big smoke signal to Washington, that the war so-called in Iraq had to stop, right now.
It didn't you'll notice.
And - important point - everyone who felt like that then has been joined by at least one other person who feels like that now, and no one has gone back the other way.
link
The more desperate they are, the more venomous the lies. They're not even lies, they're marching orders.
and turn to whatever scarum techniques will enrage some hairball to crawl out of his lair with a gun.
Yeah, its the Excited States of America ... shooting someone is the culturally sanctioned way of making a point or, in the case of an incident involving a high-profile person, often summarized (eventually) as an instantiator of a new phase in the culture or at a minimum, a signal for a new news cycle.
Boy o boy .. I sure hope there isn't a civil war (tasers at the mall or some such), though I put the odds at greater than 50%.
The more desperate they are, the more venomous the lies. They're not even lies, they're marching orders
Victory is in sight, you cheese-eating surrender monkey you.
Somebody moved the cheese - I'm cruising on anchovies.
DemNow!:
AMY GOODMAN: Matt Rothschild, the Democratic and Republican conventions were quite amazing displays of force at every level, from the local police on to the state troopers to, well, in the Republican convention, right onto troops just back from Iraq in their Army fatigues. Did this surprise you?
MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD: It did. It surprised me also that NORTHCOM itself was involved in intelligence sharing with local police officers in St. Paul. I mean, what in the world is NORTHCOM doing looking at what some of the protesters are involved in? And you had infiltration up there, too. But what we have going on in this country is we have infiltration and spying that goes on, not only at the—well, all the way from the campus police, practically, Amy, up to the Pentagon and the National Security Agency. We’re becoming a police state here.
"Democracy Is Comin' to the USA"
L. Cohen
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