When the Vice President of the United States has gone on public record as saying he advocates the use of torture against enemies of the state, and there is an army occupying your country that has no qualms about shooting and killing anyone it feels like — how loudly would you be inclined to complain? Looking at the American "slogan" for this invasion — "Shock And Awe" — the connection between it and Shock Doctrine economics becomes all too clear, according to Ms. Klein.
The State control of personal freedoms in the United States itself may not be as obvious as troops in the street, but any person anywhere can be arrested without reason and denied access to a lawyer under provisions of the Homeland Security Act. The British perfected that years ago with their anti-terrorist legislation allowing them to hold anybody without charges or access to a lawyer just by saying the magic word "terrorism."
What constitutes a threat to security anyway? I'm sure a case could be made for disrupting the economy being construed as a threat to national security — don't you? Without a healthy economy, how can all those necessary security measures be paid for, after all?
Naomi Klein has written a very lucid and convincing argument in support of her thesis that governments around the world are taking advantage of natural disasters to implement drastic changes in economic policy at the expense of their populations' well being. What's even more disturbing is the fact that she just as clearly outlines how governments are creating the circumstances enabling those situations to develop and taking steps to ensure that opposition to the changes is suppressed.
This is a book for people of all political stripes to read. Even if you disagree with Ms. Klein's politics, that won't matter. This is a book about "economics, stupid," and not about whether you are on the left or the right.
Canadian readers can purchase a copy of Shock Doctrine: The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism either directly from Random House Canada or from an online retailer like Amazon.ca.
Article comments
1 - bliffle
Yes, the shouts of "free markets" by certain characters (some even here on BC!) ring hollow when they turn around and demand that the Fed save the stock market from collapse, or that Katrina 'relief' funds be routed through privatization channels that drain off all thos tax dollars before they can reach the intended recipients.
Or that the government undertake a trillion dollar war to preserve their oilfields.
Or that the SSA be prohibited from negotiating prices for drugs.
In fact, Crisis Capitalism is a great thing for wannabees who haven't the ability to start and grow a successful business. A crisis like Katrina means the instant flow of billions of unchecked dollars that are never audited and never accounted for.
Same for Department Of Homeland Security.
Same for a large distant war.
Same for every big project these jokers advocate.
With their ability to enable crises and openhanded crisis budgeting this admin has unparalleled control over all of our markets.
They've succeeded in sovietizing the US economy.
2 - Bill
I'm pretty sure you mean President Reagan.
Regan means king. Reagan means farmer.
Don't do him the courtesy.
3 - Frank Fortune
Naomi Klein's greatest talent is for self-publicity. I would say that is her greatest genius. But even as she admits with No Logo, her works lack the depth and insight that is heralded by the publicity. While she packs the back of her books with a laundry list of facts and a toilet roll of figures, such a technique is as old as the hills. Selective fact hoarding does not bring the truth.
The Naomi Klein Project - to become a rich and famous writer - is going to plan. But what do her interventions really offer to those who follow her? Her disturbing egging on of violence at international fora prior to 9/11, provoked a severe backlash from governments around the world, and gifted activists the constrained atmosphere they now live with.
She admits the vapid thinness of No Logo's attacks on brands and logos, but will she in a few years admit the ahistorical and lazy thinking behind the Shock Doctrine? It is a long-standing observation of human behaviour dressed up as a revelation: that humans exploit weakness to get their way.
Most disturbing, however, is what she is trying to achieve as a political project. She calls herself a neo-Kenysian just when such economics are as dangerous and shot through with failure as the market fundamentalists. Do people really wish for more management of their lives by the state, or are they in fact seeking liberation from both the state and heavy-handed corporations? As a case study, the UK's Labour Party has been engaged in just such a project to disasterous ends: people are rebelling against this suffocating state micro-managing and gross waste of public funds. In many ways, Klein panders to an audience of neo-Marxists pining for a new era of state growth. But a quick look around the world at what people really want, will show a far different picture: a global population straining to be made free.
4 - Lucas T Nascimento
"Economics, politics, culture... these are the elements that make up a glorious symphony, which we call the world. But for much too long, we have been forced to listen to the music being conducted by the powerful and wealthy few. For much too long we have listened to the shrill voices spewing the same failed ideas time and time again. Those ugly ideas have grown strong over time, the off-spring of blind and stubborn repetition. Now, these ideas have long arms which quickly stuff the pockets of the elite at the expense of the masses. At the same time, they have found ideologues to conduct our world's symphony in a way that is soothing only to their small, deft ears. The ear-splitting tension thereby created has nearly drowned out any inkling of dissent, as we continue to beg for it to stop, stop, Stop! Trying only to put an end to such horrific madness, however temporary, we would give in to the wailing cry for a more deregulated, unfettered, "free-market", disaster capitalism.
Ann Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine" gently lifts the wool that has been slowly pulled over our eyes for decades. She lays out a different tune, and allows us to see and hear the truth that is behind these horrendously cacophonous sounds. She stares unflinchingly at decades of inequality, injustice, and oppression. All so that we can see a little bit clearer. So that we can begin to hear again the beautiful sounds of a symphony, which we call the world."