For a while now on this blog we have been talking about the free market and capitalism. If you look at the discussions 1 and 2 on Ayn Rand, they have been tending towards looking at economic models, the free market as well as the philosophy of objectivism.

Up until now the discussion has been extremely interesting and I have Upgrade01a, Ergo , Agent G, Tenil and Kuffir to thank for it.

This inquiry has been based on human reason, on the media and individualism. In the past three weeks I have been working on models of economics and philosophy that balance individual and collective interest. This brings into question predominant models such as the democratic one, and critiques of it that are rooted in movements such as anarchism and communism.

As a take off from our discussion and to lead us further , I’m posting this video of ‘The Shock Doctrine’, a short film by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein, directed by Jonás Cuarón.

Klein states in the film that economist Milton Friedman, of the Chicago School is the propounder of ‘Shock’ Economics wherein governments push vigorous capitalist business and corporate policies after natural or man-made disasters such as 9/11 or the tsunami in order so that the ’shocked’ public is caught unawares and is submissive, obedient and powerless to resist.

The film itself is interesting to me being here in Gujarat. I think that the re-election of the Modi Government in Gujarat following the 2002 disaster of the Godhra Train is a clear example of another SHOCK syndrome at work.

In 2002, the majority voted for Narendra Modi because they felt ‘safe‘ under him. His election campaign was carried out on the basis of this ’safety’ that he had secured for the majority from a now devastated minority. So the junta of Gujarat voted for Modi because they felt that his overtly masculine bravado would protect them from the bloated images of jehadis that were relayed everywhere in the Gujarati media. That to counter the hyper-productive angry Muslim Jehadi they needed another sword wielding barbarian of a ruler.

The real causes behind the train disaster of Godhra are yet unknown and there is no evidence to support the popular claim that the train was burnt as part of a conspiracy. We do know that the acting Chief Minister had the bodies of the deceased brought to Ahmedabad and displayed publicly for all to see. And this worked like fuel to the massive and gruesome tirade that followed against minorities in the State.

Elections are under way again , and this time, however, the opposition has woken up to Modi’s game strategies. We’re all watching.