Jim, I had to think of Milton again, when I was watched parts of the IMF macro conference (I wanted to understand more of the mentality and the arguments).
>From 1985 Milton's TV series "free to choose" was screened in New Zealand, as an ideological part of the most radical neoliberal "regime change" in the world. Finance Minister Roger Douglas later summed up the secret of his political success at the Montepelerin meeting in Christchurch, NZ, 1989: http://www.rogerdouglas.org.nz/images/peler1.pdf "The New Zealand Government's recipe for using quality policies to combine successful structural reform with electoral success can be summed up in ten key principles, which underlay our strategies: . Quality decisions start with quality people. Moving quality people into strategic positions is a prerequisite for success. . Implement reform by quantum leaps. Moving step by step lets vested interests mobilise. Big packages can neutralise them. . Speed is essential. It is impossible to move too fast. Delay will drag you down before you can achieve your success. . Once you start the momentum rolling, never let it stop. Set your own goals and deadlines. Within that framework consult widely in the community to improve detailed implementation. . Credibility is crucial. It is hard to win and you can lose it overnight. Winning it depends on consistency and transparency. . The dog must see the rabbit. Adjustment is impossible if people don't know where you are going. You have to light their path. . Stop selling the public short. Voters need and want politicians with the vision and guts to create a better future. . Don't blink or wobble. Get the decisions right and front up. Confidence often rests on your own visibly relaxed composure. . Opportunity, incentive and choice mobilise the energy of the people to achieve successful change. Protection suppresses it. Get the framework right to help everyone act more effectively. . When in doubt, ask yourself: "Why am I in politics?" The speech is well worth reading as a political documentary (if one is not a totally blinkered Marxist ideologue), since - irrespective of whether one agrees with it or not - it spells out the basic modus operandi involved in any radical change program. Of course, I should add that at the time, Roger Douglas's Labour Party also had an absolute majority in parliament and could therefore "ram through" rafts of legislation, without great legal obstacles (eventually parliamentarians could be seen emerging from parliament buildings with dark rings around the eyes from overwork and long sittings). But what he was talking about, was how you could "take the people with you" through the radical reforms, while neutralizing the opposition. Jurriaan _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
