Tipping Point?

There is an old adage which says that if you are not left wing when you are young then you are heartless and if you are not right wing when you are older then you are a failure. I have to confess I have always been fairly liberal economically although I saw a thought provoking film last night called The Shock Doctrine which is "an investigation of "disaster capitalism", based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance". The film looks at Milton Friedman, his Chicago Boys and their efforts to implement free markets, but rather than starting with Thatcher and Regan, the film also considers Pinochet and Videla in Chile and Argentina respectively. It also extends the theory to explain what has happened in Iraq since the West invaded. Rather brutal stuff all in all. Maybe free markets and capitalism isn't all that. That thought, plus the fact that I hadn't shaved for a couple of days over the weekend meaning I had the start of a small beard, made me think I was turning into my friend Laurent.

I quickly shaved this morning, and on reflection I realised that the film hadn't even talked about the sovereign debt crisis or any of the other problems that come about from having too large a state - the film whilst interesting was very one sided. Now I'm feeling better.

Other news of the day is that the plaster cast is off, the bone looks to be healing correctly but I can't jump any horses for at least another month. Sounds like progress.