Log #5
Reflection
I started researching this week by looking up how people on the internet conceptualize a miracle. Unsurprisingly, most of what turned up had religious connotations. However, philosophy had some interesting things to say about it. Philosopher David Hume defined a miracle as “a violation of the normal laws of nature by some supernatural agent.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines a miracle as “an event not explicable by natural causes alone. A reported miracle excites wonder because it appears to require, as its cause, something beyond the reach of human action and natural causes.” However, on paper these definitions fail to capture what I’m looking for. Thus, I aim to pose this question to the class during my presentation. I want to ask people what they deem a miracle, and if they have personal experiences or specific examples that they think constitute a miracle. My two video sources for this week were a goldmine of information and audio bites to be used in my podcast. I plan to use primary source quotes from both videos as well as utilize some of the sound effects in the second video. One problem I have run into is translating Spanish clips (such as Pinochet’s speeches) but I plan to ask my Chilean friend to help me with this.
LibertyPen. “Milton Friedman – Pinochet And Chile.” YouTube. January 02, 2013. Accessed April 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzgMNLtLJ2k.
[0:44] This YouTube video has clips of Milton Friedman’s public remarks on Chile and Pinochet. He argues that Pinochet’s military regime was one of the few regimes willing to switch from a “top-down to bottom-up performance”. He goes on to say, “the real miracle in Chile was not that these economic reforms worked so well, Chile is by all odds the best success story today. The real miracle is that a military junta was willing to let them do it”; he finds that this is so surprising due to the fact that a military functions top down. He also admits to advising the Chilean government, but declares he received no compensation for this. He concludes by saying, “I am more than willing to share in the credit for the extraordinary test-job that our students did down there.” These quotes are extremely powerful examples of Milton Friedman’s involvement in the Chilean miracle and free-market reform policies in Chile. I plan to use many of these quotes in my podcast to highlight the tension between how it might have looked economically successful on paper, yet in reality have disastrous social repercussions. This source will also be important to include directly in the podcast because it highlights how not everyone thought the dictatorship and Chilean miracle was negative.
Right-libertarianism Exposed. “Milton Friedman’s Involvement with the Brutal Pinochet Dictatorship.” YouTube. September 09, 2014. Accessed April 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uVoktXVPNY.
This film notes how neoliberalists often leave Chile out of their neoliberal narrative and start with Reagan and Thatcher because its “more flattering”. This short video outlines how the Chicago Boys began to form as more students were sent to get their PhD’s from the University of Chicago and to learn free-market policies. This video also has an important quote that showcases US involvement in Pinochet’s coup of 1973 (essentially that Nixon supported it in a number of ways, mainly by making the economy “scream”). It also references “the brick” (el ladrillo) which is the 500-page “economic blueprint” produced by the Chicago Boys before the coup that outlined the huge transformation they planned for the economy. I will use this video for production elements. They have soundbites that are perfect for adding dimension to the coup portion of my podcast (like plane, bomb, and tank noises) that come from real footage in 1973. They also include the speech from Pinochet, in Spanish, that I will also use in my podcast. I will have to translate and create a voiceover for this speech in order to make it comprehendible to those that do not speak Spanish. I also plan to use another Pinochet clip from this video that emphasizes how he made Marxism ‘the enemy’ to justify everything that happened in the nation during his reign. Additionally, this video emphasizes the terror, and extreme atrocities the dictatorship committed against the people. Although this film provides accurate information and real footage that is corroborated by other sources, the production company “right libertarianism exposed” is not the most reliable or objective source in itself. This source takes a more negative stance than the other video I looked at this week. This is also the first video source to highlight how these economic policies really expanded the divide between the rich and the poor.
Comments:
It is a wonderful idea to pose the question of what miracle is to the class. But you might also want to find out who used this term first (if you can) and what they meant when they used it.
Also, your sources and your reflection on your sources are great. I cannot remember but have you had a chance to look at Clara Han’s book yet?