Jason Hall on the lasting effects of globalization

Jason Hall, a notable playwright and a true classic of a friend, is also one of those guys who’s frustratingly intelligent. You know those people who can look at a seemingly trivial event, unravel the latent but nagging contradictions, and unearth an undeniably compelling point that you wish you’d been clever enough to spot on your own? Well, Jason’s one of those people.

For example, take a look at his recent post on the young protesters who capped off a rage against the terrible new Tory leadership by going to McDonald’s:

“I suppose you could argue that these recent protests weren’t about globalisation,” Jason says, “so there’s no contradiction in grabbing a Big Mac after marching on Downing Street.

“But couldn’t you also argue,” he says, “that McDonald’s was and is still symbolic of the darker side of globalisation, the kind of globalisation whereby large, mutli-national organisations exploit their ability to move flexibly between states, allowing them to flout national laws?

“And wasn’t it exactly this kind of globalisation that allowed multi-national financial institutions to behave in ways that led to the current economic crises? And isn’t the current economic crises the reason why the UK government is justifying cuts to education funding – exactly what the students are protesting?”

In other news, I thought I had a common name until I tried to find the exact address of Jason’s blog through Google on my iPhone. Jason, have you seen this thiing?

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