Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Thankfully

I was wrong to interpret Megan's quiet as sign of an impending storm. A very light day, so far. There is, however, this post on that mini Hitler who dares sin against the holy free market of white people owning everything, Hugo Chavez. There are problems to be had with Chavez even beyond petty complaints about his style, but Megan's real issue here is that neoliberalism, or Friedmanism, or her Hayekian variant on it, or etc, does not hold sway in Venezuela.
Aside: I have to admit that The Shock Doctrine* has had a profound impact on how I read Megan's work, among many other things. The biggest question for me in regards to Megan remains, to put it bluntly, whether she is stupid or maliciously greedy. The two aren't by any means mutually exclusive, but I really wonder whether she's dumb enough to believe she's working for the benefit of humanity, or just feels a need to pretend so. I'm coming to favor the latter, that she's not quite as dumb as she pretends, but is a lot more repugnant, which is saying something.
Returning to the topic at hand, Megan compares Chavez to frukkin Mugabe, which only really makes sense if you consider keeping a country's national resources from being bought in a fixed deal for way below market value by foreign rich white people to be hideously evil. (Which is not to call Mugabe in any way well intentioned.) Even Megan has to half admit the comparison is a reach,
The situations aren't entirely parallel, of course; situations rarely are. But Chavez's crony populism and hamfisted mismanagement of the country's main economic resource, combined with his obvious belief that the world would be a vastly better place if he had a great deal more power, does not exactly make me sing with joy for his nation's prospects.
If only they had a leader willing to put everyone out of work to save their jobs.

*- Also helped me understand why Megan is reduced to ranting against Naomi Klein, instead of rationally taking issue with her. Klein is a real threat to Megan, and has the kind of success and respect Megan can only dream of. The Shock Doctrine is genuinely important.
And yes, I realize the incongruity of an avowed misogynist championing the work of a woman. There's a blow-up doll with a Margaret Thatcher mask on waiting to be punished for it.

1 comment:

M. Bouffant said...

Neither stupid (well, not exactly) nor greedy, just lazy, & smart enough to know which side her bread is buttered on. She's not competing in the world of business & finance to maximize efficiency & create wealth, she's just skating along as a typist (who can't even afford a house) but is definitely on the side of wealth & power. The funny thing is, she'll be thrown on the dustheap of history w/ all the others, once she's outlived her usefulness. And isn't perceptive enough to see that sucking up to wealth & power isn't getting her very far.