Klein succeeded in demolishing Fukyama who like Huntington (Clash of Civilisations)was a State Department propagandist.Both peddled deeply flawed intellectually shallow theses to justify Washington’s agressive unipolar post-Cold War pre-emptions.
How convenient the End of History thesis was in the justification it provided for amnesia and complacency
and didn’t many progressives succumb to both.
Klein addresses the intellectual inertia that set in on the Left particularly after the US used the 9/11 security agenda to choke off the voices of global discontent articulated around the anti-globalisation movement.
Since 9/11 figured prominently in making her case and she was in New York,I think it would probably have gone down better with her audience than she imagined if she had voiced some disquiet about the official version of who was responsible for the attacks.
Just prior to the 2004 Election a Zogby poll of New Yorkers found 50% believed their government was involved in the attacks.2/3 wanted a new inquiry.
There was deafening silence from Democrats like Hilary Clinton and Charles Schumer who both represent the city.
The wars that have followed in the wake of the attacks and the Pol Pot Year Zero mentality with which the corporate media has bombarded us since have seemingly allowed the real 9/11 conspirators and their MIC backers to compound their crime by making huge profits.It will likely happen again till we emerge from the denial and taboo surrounding the atrocities.
Progressives in the West should be as angry as the dispossessed activists in Porte Allegre.Maybe we just got fat and grew lazy and our vote became a meaningless joke.As Klein exhorts us-when doors are slammed it should be possible to open them again.
Again our adversaries now still have the problem of motivating us for their next round of freelance corporate fascism and military/security measures.Without another spectacular like 9/11 they may not be able to pull it off.
That said,the fact that Jeffrey Sachs stayed away proves what a fine speaker Naomi Klein is.The point about the need for democratising control over economic priorities being the central question of our age was well made.
Incidentally,what the hell is Sachs doing in the third world?Building model villages?
Would these be something along the lines of the strategic hamlets the US imposed on the Vietnamese peasantry forty years ago.All barbed wire and watchtowers!
Listened to this on the train to Glasgow
Its a great lecture and certainly made me question my dedication.
Have you seen her film “The Take?”
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-6939956197822128063&q=the+take&total=259760&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4
(Spanish version)
Klein succeeded in demolishing Fukyama who like Huntington (Clash of Civilisations)was a State Department propagandist.Both peddled deeply flawed intellectually shallow theses to justify Washington’s agressive unipolar post-Cold War pre-emptions.
How convenient the End of History thesis was in the justification it provided for amnesia and complacency
and didn’t many progressives succumb to both.
Klein addresses the intellectual inertia that set in on the Left particularly after the US used the 9/11 security agenda to choke off the voices of global discontent articulated around the anti-globalisation movement.
Since 9/11 figured prominently in making her case and she was in New York,I think it would probably have gone down better with her audience than she imagined if she had voiced some disquiet about the official version of who was responsible for the attacks.
Just prior to the 2004 Election a Zogby poll of New Yorkers found 50% believed their government was involved in the attacks.2/3 wanted a new inquiry.
There was deafening silence from Democrats like Hilary Clinton and Charles Schumer who both represent the city.
The wars that have followed in the wake of the attacks and the Pol Pot Year Zero mentality with which the corporate media has bombarded us since have seemingly allowed the real 9/11 conspirators and their MIC backers to compound their crime by making huge profits.It will likely happen again till we emerge from the denial and taboo surrounding the atrocities.
Progressives in the West should be as angry as the dispossessed activists in Porte Allegre.Maybe we just got fat and grew lazy and our vote became a meaningless joke.As Klein exhorts us-when doors are slammed it should be possible to open them again.
Again our adversaries now still have the problem of motivating us for their next round of freelance corporate fascism and military/security measures.Without another spectacular like 9/11 they may not be able to pull it off.
That said,the fact that Jeffrey Sachs stayed away proves what a fine speaker Naomi Klein is.The point about the need for democratising control over economic priorities being the central question of our age was well made.
Incidentally,what the hell is Sachs doing in the third world?Building model villages?
Would these be something along the lines of the strategic hamlets the US imposed on the Vietnamese peasantry forty years ago.All barbed wire and watchtowers!