American Style Fascism
“The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have democracy, second the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it.”-1941 Edward Dowling
In the early ‘60s the economist Milton Friedman pushed an extreme version of the free market, minuscule taxes, wide scale privatization of everything from utilities to schools, and virtually no government involvement in the private sector on everything from tariffs to regulation.
Friedman’s friend, Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet, imposed much of Friedman’s agenda, introducing school vouchers and privatizing Social Security. Chile’s economy crashed, which gave some of Friedman’s disciples an opportunity to try the shock therapy of remaking entire economies overnight.
Today, those disciples include Donald Rumsfeld, who saw a chance for Friedman’s shock therapy in Iraq, and coalition administrator Paul Bremer, who cut Iraq’s corporate taxes to 15 percent and planned to sell off Iraq’s biggest businesses, almost all of them owned by the country itself, to foreign investors. As in Chile, the Iraq people opposed these plans. When it looked like the popular candidates would block the Iraqi selloff, Bremer delayed elections and installed a provisional government.
Violence surged after Bremer’s provisional regime took control, and word spread of Bremer’s plans. Fear of competition by rich unfettered foreigners devastated Iraqi business. A Republican lobbyist said, “one well-stocked 7/11 could knock out 30 Iraqi stores. A Wal-Mart could take over the country.” Consequently, kidnappers targeting foreign businessmen and demanded that foreign businesses leave.
The basic premise of Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” is that these are very unpopular policies, that people tend to protect their labor and social programs. They don’t want to hand their democracies over to multinational corporations. Consequently, some kind of shock is needed. That shock could be a war, an economic meltdown, or a terrorist attack. Anything that creates a period of confusion, the politicians come forward, playing a father figure.
During a period of confusion they push through policies in a state of emergency that they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. In this country the shock of September 11th was used to privatize our military and to create a hollow infrastructure of a government that is Bush’s legacy.
In the early ‘60s the economist Milton Friedman pushed an extreme version of the free market, minuscule taxes, wide scale privatization of everything from utilities to schools, and virtually no government involvement in the private sector on everything from tariffs to regulation.
Friedman’s friend, Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet, imposed much of Friedman’s agenda, introducing school vouchers and privatizing Social Security. Chile’s economy crashed, which gave some of Friedman’s disciples an opportunity to try the shock therapy of remaking entire economies overnight.
Today, those disciples include Donald Rumsfeld, who saw a chance for Friedman’s shock therapy in Iraq, and coalition administrator Paul Bremer, who cut Iraq’s corporate taxes to 15 percent and planned to sell off Iraq’s biggest businesses, almost all of them owned by the country itself, to foreign investors. As in Chile, the Iraq people opposed these plans. When it looked like the popular candidates would block the Iraqi selloff, Bremer delayed elections and installed a provisional government.
Violence surged after Bremer’s provisional regime took control, and word spread of Bremer’s plans. Fear of competition by rich unfettered foreigners devastated Iraqi business. A Republican lobbyist said, “one well-stocked 7/11 could knock out 30 Iraqi stores. A Wal-Mart could take over the country.” Consequently, kidnappers targeting foreign businessmen and demanded that foreign businesses leave.
The basic premise of Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine” is that these are very unpopular policies, that people tend to protect their labor and social programs. They don’t want to hand their democracies over to multinational corporations. Consequently, some kind of shock is needed. That shock could be a war, an economic meltdown, or a terrorist attack. Anything that creates a period of confusion, the politicians come forward, playing a father figure.
During a period of confusion they push through policies in a state of emergency that they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. In this country the shock of September 11th was used to privatize our military and to create a hollow infrastructure of a government that is Bush’s legacy.
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