Repression and the free market “two sides of the same coin."
September 21, 2016 10:31 AM Subscribe
40 Years Ago, This Chilean Exile Warned Us About the Shock Doctrine. Then He Was Assassinated.
The ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile: Economic Freedom’s Awful Toll; By Orlando Letelier.
How can this inequality be maintained if not through jolts of electric shock.
See previously.
The ‘Chicago Boys’ in Chile: Economic Freedom’s Awful Toll; By Orlando Letelier.
How can this inequality be maintained if not through jolts of electric shock.
See previously.
Disaster and Shock is how enclosure is initiated in 1999, i mean 2005, i mean, 2016
posted by eustatic at 11:30 AM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by eustatic at 11:30 AM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's insane that the US gave support to a government which assassinated a political dissident on the streets of our capital city.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:32 AM on September 21, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:32 AM on September 21, 2016 [7 favorites]
The free market isn't free, and the price is paid by the poor.
posted by clockzero at 11:36 AM on September 21, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by clockzero at 11:36 AM on September 21, 2016 [10 favorites]
I would have liked Allende's presidency to continue, if only for the sake of seeing its historical effect. Sure his government confiscated nationalized the copper mines and stole mobilized trucks to break strikes micromanage the economy preserve order, but Project Cybersyn was a unique opportunity to see whether computing power could actually make a centralized economy work. (It did help to transport enough food for a whole city with only 200 of those trucks.) Of course failure nor success would convince partisans of any economic system, but since even the most capitalist countries today have significant government involvement in the economy, a successful cybernetics program could have been a powerful example to make other centralized economic programs more efficient.
posted by Rangi at 11:44 AM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Rangi at 11:44 AM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
When markets are completely free, nothing else can be.
And since it happened on that particular September day, the coup against Allende is often referred to as 'the first 9/11'.
posted by jamjam at 11:52 AM on September 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
And since it happened on that particular September day, the coup against Allende is often referred to as 'the first 9/11'.
posted by jamjam at 11:52 AM on September 21, 2016 [5 favorites]
A little bit of back story Chile, from Democracy to Dictatorship.
posted by adamvasco at 11:54 AM on September 21, 2016
posted by adamvasco at 11:54 AM on September 21, 2016
Is there a date anywhere in there that isn't 1970-something, or is it correct that this is only the reprinted original article? (Without any preface or commentary.) The mefi framing is clearer than the linked site.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:29 PM on September 21, 2016
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:29 PM on September 21, 2016
Nevermind! My phone did something weird.
The first link is to Klein's commentary, the second to the original essay.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:34 PM on September 21, 2016
The first link is to Klein's commentary, the second to the original essay.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:34 PM on September 21, 2016
Eduardo Galeano:
'If they really want to help impose democracy on the world, why does the US oppose the creation of an international penal court for crimes committed by state terrorism? They should be the first advocates of the cause. Instead they oppose it. How is it possible to talk about democracy when they are protecting the dictators, and when they are the center of a system of power that is antidemocratic in its essential relations with the rest of the world? Why deny countries the right to self-determination, not only through military intervention, but also through new forms of hegemony, using the high international technocracy to act as pirates in a cybernetic age?...
'...Here’s a story told as a joke, although it’s true to life: A Latin American president comes to Washington to negotiate outstanding debt. Upon his return, he announces to his country, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is we no longer owe a cent, the bad news is we have 24 hours to leave the country.” I suppose that if the United States is going to give the world lessons on democracy, one is allowed to ask questions like why do so few people participate in elections here? In little Uruguay more than double the percentage of people participate in elections than here. And why do candidates here depend on fortunes given to them by large corporations? Only two percent of the North American population contributes those huge amounts and those two percent are the ones who decide.'
posted by Lyme Drop at 1:10 PM on September 21, 2016 [10 favorites]
'If they really want to help impose democracy on the world, why does the US oppose the creation of an international penal court for crimes committed by state terrorism? They should be the first advocates of the cause. Instead they oppose it. How is it possible to talk about democracy when they are protecting the dictators, and when they are the center of a system of power that is antidemocratic in its essential relations with the rest of the world? Why deny countries the right to self-determination, not only through military intervention, but also through new forms of hegemony, using the high international technocracy to act as pirates in a cybernetic age?...
'...Here’s a story told as a joke, although it’s true to life: A Latin American president comes to Washington to negotiate outstanding debt. Upon his return, he announces to his country, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is we no longer owe a cent, the bad news is we have 24 hours to leave the country.” I suppose that if the United States is going to give the world lessons on democracy, one is allowed to ask questions like why do so few people participate in elections here? In little Uruguay more than double the percentage of people participate in elections than here. And why do candidates here depend on fortunes given to them by large corporations? Only two percent of the North American population contributes those huge amounts and those two percent are the ones who decide.'
posted by Lyme Drop at 1:10 PM on September 21, 2016 [10 favorites]
Just to put this into context, this is a small part of Operation Condor, where the US trained death squads and supported the most brutal puppets we could manage throughout South America.
If you think this is crazy, realize that we are still playing such games all over the world.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 2:47 PM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
If you think this is crazy, realize that we are still playing such games all over the world.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 2:47 PM on September 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
For Operation Condor see the previously link in the FPP - nearly all the links are still working.
posted by adamvasco at 3:04 PM on September 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by adamvasco at 3:04 PM on September 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
Was that a callback to the Condor Legion? It seems like they would have the sense to not do that on purpose, unless, you know, they didn't care or thought, hey, everyone loves some Hitler and Franco.
posted by thelonius at 3:56 PM on September 21, 2016
posted by thelonius at 3:56 PM on September 21, 2016
Chile is one of the most developed countries in S. America, so I guess it worked out.
posted by jpe at 5:32 PM on September 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jpe at 5:32 PM on September 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Labyrinth by Branch and Popper is out of print but is a riveting read. Sadly it got lost in one of my moving book culls. Two things are etched in my memory. American agents either directly supervised or knowingly looked the other way as a car-bomb-murder was carried out in broad daylight on Washington D.C. streets. The floor of the car was gone at full speed and one of the occupants had both their feet ground off while dying.
posted by bukvich at 12:14 AM on September 22, 2016
posted by bukvich at 12:14 AM on September 22, 2016
I dunno... Repression and regulated market are also two sides of the same coin. Pretty much by definition.
Presenting these issues in such a way is a misleading way of axe grinding. And in fact, pretty much everywhere, there are neither totally free markets, nor totally regulated markets. And in all these places, repression remains in varying degrees. Singling out Chile is useful for highlighting the unique Chilean way of repressive government. But repressive government is not what is notable about Chile in Latin America. Repressive governing has a long history throughout the region, the list of notably non-repressive governments would be a pretty short list indeed.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:31 AM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Presenting these issues in such a way is a misleading way of axe grinding. And in fact, pretty much everywhere, there are neither totally free markets, nor totally regulated markets. And in all these places, repression remains in varying degrees. Singling out Chile is useful for highlighting the unique Chilean way of repressive government. But repressive government is not what is notable about Chile in Latin America. Repressive governing has a long history throughout the region, the list of notably non-repressive governments would be a pretty short list indeed.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:31 AM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
jpe - the development worked out well for whom?
Chile, like the rest of Latin America (and the world, really) remains an extremely unequal and socially stratified country, despite its growth in GDP. Sure, some good may have come from the Pinochet years, but at what cost?
The Inequality Behind Chile’s Prosperity
OECD - Chile most unequal country among member states
posted by nikoniko at 1:30 PM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Chile, like the rest of Latin America (and the world, really) remains an extremely unequal and socially stratified country, despite its growth in GDP. Sure, some good may have come from the Pinochet years, but at what cost?
The Inequality Behind Chile’s Prosperity
OECD - Chile most unequal country among member states
posted by nikoniko at 1:30 PM on September 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Chile is one of the most developed countries in S. America, so I guess it worked out.
Sure, in much the same way that slavery has worked out for the United States. Jesus, what a thing to say.
posted by Lyme Drop at 7:49 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sure, in much the same way that slavery has worked out for the United States. Jesus, what a thing to say.
posted by Lyme Drop at 7:49 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
« Older I'm not a hero I'm just a coffee shop. | Curtis Hanson 1945 - 2016 Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by hank at 10:58 AM on September 21, 2016