Doug Henwood wrote: > > I'm thinking of doing an article on the rise to dominance of > right-wing thought in economics & social policy in the 1970s. Any > PEN-Lers have any thoughts, reminiscences, etc.? Did Milton > Friedman's presidency at the AEA mark some kind of turning point? > In the intellectual sphere, I would cite the publication of *Anarchy, State and Utopia* by Robert Nozick in 1974. The rise of corporate funded "think" tanks with their octupus like reach into the propaganda apparatus is important. The success of the public relations industry, the mass media and entertainment industries in the "battle for men's minds" is important. Parenti, Stuart Ewen, Alex Carey and others have written on this aspect. There's a book called "Through Jaundiced Eyes. How the Media Views Labor." Forget the author. The state of the class struggle is most important. The rise of the right was made possible through historic defeats on the left in the 60's and 70's. James Petras wrote an excellent paper on this in a volume called "Marxism Today" ed. Targ and Polychroniou. Very important is the level of repression aimed at the left. Left intellectuals and movements were silenced and selectively repressed in the core countries, they were physically exterminated in the periphery. The ascendancy of the right was won through violence, torture and genocide. Counties with left or nationalist oriented policy/ideology were destroyed from without or isolated and demonized in the international community. Its surprising just how succesful U.S. foreign policy since NSC 68 has been. Sam Pawlett
