CHAPTER NINETEEN: PRIVATIZATION AS A GLOBAL GOAL
This chapter consists of a six-page anti-globalization rant. This blog is not the forum to discuss the pros and cons of neoliberal economics and the increasingly transnational nature of contemporary markets. Parenti, without justification, seems to believe that he has made a convincing case that Yugoslavia was dismantled by Western capitalists in order to destroy one of the last remaining socialist countries. Believing that the case has already been made, he clearly intends this penultimate chapter to resonate as a rousing condemnation. Instead, it lands with a dull, muffled thud.
There is nothing in this chapter which the reader has not heard before. The argument against neoliberalism has been made much more convincingly, but even if Parenti's analysis was not so broad, hyperbolic, and unsubstantiated, this would not remedy the very serious deficiency in its inclusion--the case for a capitalist plot against Yugoslavia has not been made. After nineteen chapters and slightly over 200 pages, Parenti has completely failed to make his case. After making his or her puzzled way through this chapter, the reader should come to understand one thing--Parenti, and his fellow travelers, believe what they believe in spite of the facts, not because of them. Ideological bias dictates one and only one possible narrative, and they will twist and distort the facts to fit that narrative no matter what.
In the next post, we will examine the final chapter. And then we will be ready to say goodbye to this absolutely worthless book once and for all.
No comments:
Post a Comment