Naomi Klein has a great talent for identifying key issues, but she has a very disappointing follow through.
While terror has been a handmaiden of capitalist "development" it does tend to rear its head during economic crises, deflecting attention from the causes of these crises. In the last thirty years terror has become finely tuned: there are the background domestic manifestations (men and women dying on the sidewalks), secret prisons, suspension of habeas corpus, the slow but inexorable destruction of the safety net....and its outward manifestation -- bombing the brown people.
It's unfortunate that Klein has mishmashed everything because the current task should be to clarify the means and the ends of the current terror campaign.
As for her goal of a kinder, gentler capitalism....what can I say?
joanna
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
> On Apr 28, 2008, at 4:03 PM, Robert Wrubel wrote:
> > I heard her speak before 1000+ people and she didnt make the kind
> > of general/historical claims you said she did. It was clear she
> > was talking about recent history, new tendencies, unfolding
> > stories, etc.
>
> Um, my point was that she speaks about recent histories and new
> tendencies as if they're entirely without precedent. She exaggerates
> the role of shock and disaster, and ignores the continuities with the
> past four centuries of capitalist history.
>
> Doug
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