Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein

6 comments:

sonia said...

Excellent film.

Except that it wasn't Milton Friedman who discovered this.

It was Lenin. His "heightening the contradictions" theory is at the origin of that approach.

Friedman merely adapted this Leninist method to serve capitalism.

troutsky said...

That seems like a bit of a stretch. Using that method we could go back to Troy and give the honor to Odysseus.

Frank Partisan said...

Lenin's using the dialectic method, differs from Milton Friedman's Chile model.

sonia said...

Ren,

Lenin's using the dialectic method, differs from Milton Friedman's Chile model.

You're absolutely right. Lenin's method has led to Stalinism. Friedman/Pinochet model has led to democracy and the highest standard of living in Latin America...

Troutsky,

we could go back to Troy and give the honor to Odysseus.

Wrong. Odysseus's Trojan Horse ruse was a simple battlefield tactic, unconnected to the 'shock therapy' principle.

A better example would be Cortez.

Frank Partisan said...

I can only find rightist sources, for some concept of Lenin's called "heightening of contradictions." Stalinism came from conservatism, after a revolution, civil war, invasions by several countries, WWI etc.

There has to be a material basis for Stalinism. It couldn't happen in a wealthy, stable country. Stalinism even reformed itself to some extent, as education and wealth increased.

If Stalin led in 1917, there wouldn't have been a Bolshevik Revolution.

LeftyHenry said...

Stalinism doesn't exsist. There is only Marxism-Leninism

And Lenin didn't use the shock method. Chile does not have the highest standards of living. people are impoverished and don't have basic human rights like healthcare, housing, and etc. And that's hardly democratic.