Naomi Kline, in her seminal book Shock Doctrine, proffered that in times of crisis, when the attention of its citizens is narrowly focused on a crushing event of national scope, a state will often use that event to push through a series of policies it may not otherwise be able to. While nobody really cares at the moment, momentous changes are made wilfully, and with no small kind of malice towards democracy.
The most infamous example would be Iraq of course, where a small set of evil American ideologues launched a shocked American public into endless awe on the pretext of 9/11. By the time democracy awoke, the irreversible deed had been done - and done in a fashion a true democracy would never have otherwise accepted.
In as much as that (and other heinous crimes committed with a great deal more blunt trauma) has led directly to the economic maelstrom in which the world now finds itself engulfed, the current US administration of Barack Obama may again be borrowing a page from the well worn tome of "disaster capitalism". To be sure, Obama finds himself between a thousand rocks and a thousand more hard places, and no choice he exercises will or ever be good or bad, right or wrong. No option is a good option anymore in America, however it behooves Obama to, at a minimum, respect the history of the beast that brought him to the burning.
America needs so much it is pitiful to watch its once golden body writhing and twitching, decaying from within. Americans need health care to the standards of the rest of the industrialized peoples of the world. It also needs to address its woeful dependence on foreign energy, its long bankrupt "entitlements", its arcane and curious education, and a long list of other monuments it casually brushed aside in its race for bigger plasma TV's. And while in another, simpler time just 90 days ago American democracy resoundingly voted for all these things, few would have expected they be done all at once, and all at the same time. Fewer still would have predicted they would be done in the teeth of a hurricane that will knock any firmly built ideology to pieces.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Arch Conservative
What a waste of space this article was.
2 - Aetius Romulous
Thank you. I appreciate the vote of support. Ask your boss Rush to comment and I will have died and gone to heaven.
3 - roger nowosielski
Aetius,
I like the overall tenor of your discussion. Could you elaborate your conclusion a bit. What do you suggest?
Interestingly, only yesterday one of the guests on George Noory's Coast-to-Coast-AM program suggested that U.S. attacking Iran would be one effective way to divert everyone's attention from present economic woes (and I agree that it would, not with the contemplated course of action) And this proposition plays directly into Naomi Klein's argument.
Your thoughts?
4 - Cindy
lol Aetius.
Screambucket...brilliant! Manifesto was my fav.
Don't worry Arch, this writer just doesn't have any common sense. :-)
5 - Aetius Romulous
The thing about the neocons was that they took a perfectly complex and invisible economic geopolitical strategy, and tried to translate it into blood and guts...the electorates blood and guts. Friedman himself warned that "shock and awe" can not work in a democracy, which is why it was really for export only. The lunatics in the Bush Whitehouse may not have read that chapter.
Attacking Iran is insane and incomprehensible at any level.Pathology of the highest national order. Any attempt to rationalize such a concept is itself a pathology.
Crazy shit and nothing more.
Great comments - thanks
6 - roger nowosielski
It takes one to know one.
7 - Dave Nalle
Arch, despite the partisan and inflammatory opening of this article it does make a great deal of sense later on. It's why I made it a pick for the day.
Dave
8 - Aetius Romulous
Ya man - partisan and inflammatory. Love it. Love it!
Thanks for the pick Dave, I understand it was a tough call. That's a great editor at work.
9 - Cindy
It takes one to know one.
Indeed. And it brings me such cheer to see one writing here.
10 - Cindy
I rate your blog a 9/10 Aetius. I would have given it a 10, but it doesn't have enough bad language. Those favorite reviews helped.
11 - Aetius Romulous
Thanks Cindy. Some of that shit defies bad language.
12 - roger nowosielski
I'm still looking for elucidation of your conclusion, Aetius, if you please. Not quite certain how to take it. Otherwise, a great job. Short and snappy. And if Dave gives you a high-five in spite of his ideological disagreement, I'd take it to the bank - provided there are still any good ones left.
13 - Aetius Romulous
Ooops. Me bad. Sorry Roger.
You can't do it all at once and if you try, it is a wild swing in the dark or worse...disaster capitalism redux. Either way I believe the schedule is a mistake. Although I'm starting to lean towards disaster capitalism. Ugh.
I have great respect for Naomi Kline but her test will be how she calls this one I suspect.
14 - Cindy
Here's my problem with Naomi Klein (whom I admire)--she doesn't go far enough, which is expressed in one of her reader's comments:
"Things work best when government is a watchdog over the markets. When the government IS the market, who is the watchdog over the government."
15 - roger nowosielski
Do you not think Naomi Klein isn't critical of the government?
16 - Cindy
Lemme take one of those "not"(s) out of your question...
Yes, she's critical. But she still ends with--the government should have more control.
Okay, that is a temporary reform I can support. The government should have more control vs. free market ideology should be permitted to run rampant.
It's still not a solution to me.
17 - Aetius Romulous
American democracy and "free market" capitalism are both equal parts of the same thing, known since 1945 as the "American Way". The two are inseperable and you cannot consider one without the other.
Free markets are by their nature excessive and unfair - they demand the checks and balances of democracy to keep the system in equalibrium. Democracy should respond to the wishes of the electorate, the electorate setting the tone and pace of free markets. They work in harmony as a whole.
The issue has become however, the speed at which American free markets is now conducted, and the size and scope of commerce on a global scale. The crucial balance of direct participation by the electorate on policy is still stuck in 1945, and is broken into an ill functioning collection of economic vassal nation states without the necessary democratic apparatus to keep the thing in equalibrium.
Released from any accountability, the system has run amok for over 30 years, imploding under the laws of nature right now - before our very eyes.
If it were not so horrible...it would be kinda cool to watch.
18 - roger nowosielski
"American democracy and "free market" capitalism are both equal parts of the same thing, known since 1945 as the "American Way". The two are inseperable and you cannot consider one without the other."
Perfect point, Aetius. I argue precisely the same point in "Hidden Dimensions in American Politics, Part III)," published here on BC last month. You can look it up. I'm trying to convince Cindy of that, thus far to no avail because she's an anarchist at heart.
There's no other way to account for the prosperity which America made possible, and the hope to the rest of the world. The problem with Cindy, and others who have been born and raised here, they lack the necessary perspective. So they look to the utopian future, failing to realize the great strides we've already made and the possibilities still untold.
19 - Cindy
I never failed to recognize great strides.
The problem is they lead people to Utopianize a flawed system.
(BTW, I recommend working on what your problem is, if you can get out of your own way to do it. I know you're highly educated. But, I still think there's hope anyway.)
20 - Aetius Romulous
Ya but...
It don't work Roger. Americans don't vote on economic issues, and if they do they define "economics" as the freedom to buy an xbox.When they do vote for whatever it was they were in fact voting for...they vote for the whole planet.
That just won't work anymore, the end of the "American Way". Americans are being forced to pick between their shiny happy crap and global democracy of some sort or another, or a soviet style existance behind the walls of nationalism.
Either way man, the world outside America is done with it. That was the subtle message Gordon Brown carried last week... a lot of "we", not so much "America".
21 - roger nowosielski
Forget that crap. There will always be the vulgar among us, the high and the low. I don't have any illusions. There's no heaven on earth. That's why Cindy is so goddamn off her rocker if she thinks I'm idealizing anything here. But the possibilities and freedoms are there for those who know the true meaning - if we ever navigate our way out of this mess.
And yes, we're at crossroads. How can anyone deny that.
But in light of your last remark, I see certain contradictions. You make me think that perhaps I misunderstood the thrust of your article.
I've told you, Cindy, that we're operating from different perspectives. I'm trying to salvage the best out of what's already a bad situation, whereas you are looking for transcending the whole thing. So get off your fucking high horse rather than criticize my concerns by trying to displace them with yours, as though the choice of the matter was anything but apparent.
22 - Cindy
If you want to ask me direct questions. You might get used to expecting they'll be given with my opinions in them.
If you can't tolerate my opinions, you may wish to examine the idea of why. It may have something to do with this: I'm trying to convince Cindy of...[fill in this with anything].
23 - roger nowosielski
There was nothing improper about my posing my question indirectly to Aetius, expressing my frustration, if you like, trying to penetrate your head, especially since I did address you within the same comment directly.
24 - roger nowosielski
And BTW, I hope you realize now I'm not disrespecting you (by kowtowing to you, which you accused me of earlier), since I'm adversarial.
So do take heart!
25 - Cindy
It's all good Roger. You can address me any way.