On Sep 29, 2007, at 11:33 AM, Jim Devine wrote:
On 9/29/07, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
It's an awful review, no doubt. But that quote from Klein is a rather
weak explanation of the right's ideological victory in reasonably
democratic countries like the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, and
even Canada.
not having read the book, I don't know if Klein has a better
explanation there.
I've read about 2/3 of it, and haven't come across more than a
paragraph.
It's not easy to explain the degree and duration of
popular assent to neoliberalism, but somebody's got to do it. And we
did, at least to some degree, lose the battle of ideas. Time to dust
off Stuart Hall's old essay on how Thatcherism became the common
sense of the British masses.
what does he say? does he say that the rise of neoliberalism isn't
just their victory, but also a result of the weakness of the
alternative? if so, that seems pretty obvious.
It's been 20 years since I read it, but as I recall, the right got
people to think that unions were a problem, that markets are flexible
and liberating, and that the nanny state stifled innovation. The
revolution in consciousness preceded their victory - made it
possible, really. But I must re-read.
Doug
