A few days back, I pointed out what a collection of dishonest, inaccurate drivel was contained within Naomi Klein’s recent book, in which she wrongly accused the late Milton Friedman of, among other things, supporting the invasion of Iraq (he opposed it, as a cursory Google search could have shown her). Jonathan Chait, of The New Republic, a left-leaning US publication, also stamps hard on the woman.
Now, I might disagree with the late Professor Friedman about the rights and wrongs of invading Iraq but what interests me is why some people on the left, and the right for that matter, get themselves so confused about what the likes of Milton Friedman were about. And yet his views are hidden in plain sight, or not hidden at all. He was, in the best sense of the word, a liberal. He opposed the War on Drugs. He opposed military conscription. (Does Klein?). He thought sexual relations between adults was no business of government. He opposed censorship. He opposed robbing the poor of their savings via inflation. He opposed trade union closed shops as injurious to the non-unionised worker. He opposed exchange controls and countless other controls on our lives, of all kinds. He supported school vouchers as beneficial for the children of the poor and politically overlooked. Being the son of poor Jewish immigrants, Professor Friedman was a classic example of the American Dream. His influence on American public life, and the wider world of ideas, was and still is immense.
At some gut, non-intellectual level, Ms Klein knows this. So instead of wrestling with such ideas, she has to create this conspiracy-theory: that free market ideas depend on there being brutal shock events to succeed. Really? Now, it may be true that crises such as hit Britain in the late 1970s may sweep pro-market governments to power, but there is nothing pre-ordained about this. Instead of a Maggie, we could quite easily have elected an extreme socialist government dedicated to total state central planning, as has indeed happened before. Wars and recessions are typically no friend of small government, or of the open society in general.
Ms Klein is a moron. The smarter parts of the left are starting to notice.
There is also something wonderfully dishonest about a book on globalization and liberalization that completely ignores India, almost 15% of the worlds population.
That is an excellent summary of Milt’s ideas (you missed off the ‘land value tax is the least-bad tax quote, is all). But he is only remembered for one or two of his bright ideas which Thatcher/Reagan adopted, which do not do The Great Man the credit he so richly deserves.
Excellent JP! Naomi Klein is an utter moron who cuts any cloth to suit whatever hobby-horse she’s currently riding however irrationally. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended-up defending her inaccuracies by ‘fessing-up that they allowed her to reveal a deeper truth or some similar bunk.
She is thoroughly bunkrupt.
Naomi Klein?
Pah!
As a daughter of upper-middle class Jewish professional liberals, who fled to Canada to criticise the US from the safety of another country, her credentials for emotive drivel flying a banner of ‘social justice’ are beyond reproach.
I hated her the second I cracked the spine of ‘No Logo’ and realised she was 25 when applying all her maturity, insight and thoughtfulness to the issue of global capitalism – only to tell us that Walmart’s refusal to sell certain corrupt examples of Western popular music was ‘censorship’.
Shame on her for smearing Milton Friedman – more of a real scholar than Klein could ever be.
Eddie W. has it exactly right. Naomi probably spends more per month on having her nails wrapped and hair teased than the annual budget of Burkina Fasso. But then she is a product of (private) St. George’s school in Montreal and any English speaking Montrealer who is not a St. George’s alum knows what that means – do as I say not as I do.
“The smarter parts of the left are starting to notice.”
Yes, but the other 99.9% is slobbering over her crap.
Naomi Klein is not the only rich leftie pinhead who feels they can criticise someone like Friedman without knowing the first thing about his work.
Only this Saturday I read a lifestyle interview in the Daily Telegraph with the film maker Nick Broomfield. Asked what he wished had never been invented, he replied:
“Milton Friedman’s theories on free market economy, which are responsible for the greed and extremely dangerous world we live in today.”
It’s true people, Milton Friedman invented greed, and is even now working hard with the Iranians to develop the atomic bomb. I’d like to bet whatever Broomfield spends on lunch that he has never read a single word Friedman has written, but I’m not an immensely rich right-on media luvvie, so I doubt I could afford it.