The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Interview with Naomi Klein (2007)
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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by the Canadian author Naomi Klein, and is the basis of a 2009 documentary by the same name directed by Michael Winterbottom. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312427999/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312427999&linkCode=as2&tag=tra0c7-20&linkId=05fb1fa95d8e8bb83c840166c5094b3b The book argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because they were pushed through while the citizens were reacting to disasters or upheavals. It is implied that some man-made crises, such as the Falklands war, may have been created with the intention of pushing through these unpopular reforms in their wake. The book has an introduction, a main body and a conclusion, divided into seven parts with a total of 21 chapters. The introduction sketches the history of the last thirty years where economic shock doctrine has been applied throughout the world, from South America in the 1970s to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Klein introduces two of her main themes. That practitioners of the shock doctrine tend to seek a blank slate on which to create their ideal free market economies, which usually requires a violent destruction of the existing economic order. The similarities between economic shock doctrine and the original shock therapy -- a psychiatric technique where electric shocks were applied to mentally ill patients. Part 1 begins with a chapter on psychiatric shock therapy and the covert experiments conducted by the psychiatrist Ewen Cameron in collusion with the Central Intelligence Agency: how it was partially successful in distorting and regressing patients' original personality, but ineffectual in developing a "better" personality to replace it. Parallels with economic shock therapy are made, including a digression on how government agencies harnessed some of the lessons learned to create more effective torture techniques. Torture, according to Klein, has often been an essential tool for authorities who have implemented aggressive free market reforms -- this assertion is stressed throughout the book. She suggests that for historical reasons the human rights movement has often portrayed torture without explaining its context, which has made it frequently appear as pointless cruelty. The second chapter introduces Milton Friedman and his Chicago school of economics, whom Klein describes as leading a movement committed to free markets even less regulated than before the Great Depression. Part 2 discusses the use of shock doctrine to transform South American economies in the 1970s, focusing on the coup in Chile led by General Augusto Pinochet. The apparent necessity for the unpopular policies associated with shock therapy to be supported by torture is explored. Part 3 covers attempts to apply the shock doctrine without the need for extreme violence against sections of the population. The mild shock therapy of Margaret Thatcher is explained as being made possible by the Falklands War, while free market reform in Bolivia was possible due to a combination of pre-existing economic crises and the charisma of Jeffrey Sachs. Part 4 reports on how the shock doctrine was applied in Poland, Russia, South Africa and to the tiger economies during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Part 5 introduces the "Disaster Capitalism Complex", where the author describes how companies have learnt to profit from disasters. She talks about how the same personnel move easily from security-related posts in US government agencies to lucrative positions in corporations. Part 6 discusses the occupation of Iraq, which Klein describes as the most comprehensive and full-scale implementation of the shock doctrine ever attempted. Part 7 is about the winners and losers of economic shock therapy -- how narrow groups will often do very well by moving into luxurious gated communities while large sections of the population are left with decaying public infrastructure, declining incomes and increased unemployment. Conclusion is about the backlash against the shock doctrine and economic institutions that propagate it like the World Bank and IMF. South America and Lebanon post-2006 are examined as sources of positive news, where politicians are already rolling back free-market policies, with some mention of the increased campaigning by community-minded activists in South Africa and China. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine
Comments
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Naomi, she is one very beautiful "Shock" for me!!!
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Naomi is intellectual refreshment in USA!
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The interviewer is hopeless. He's completely out of his depth. He keeps trying to challenge her points when he clearly doesn't even understand what they are.
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This guy, Franklin Foer, seems to be trying his best to oppose the concept in The Shock Doctrine. He fails with his obvious effort to defend the pathway this country took with regards to Iraq. Profit and greed and imperialism all played a part in what was one of the great blunders of our country's history. Thank you to Naomi Klein for her work. I have read her book 'The Shock Doctrine' and found it to be very educational.
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See Hurricane Patricia..........today Afghanistan earthquake....tomorrow more nuclear waste dump explosions....and next week space debris falling back on Earth. SNAFU! LOL!
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Thanks Naomi, it's amazing how obvious a conflict of interest war "shareholders" is; as well as "prison" shareholders, "heath insurance" shareholders, etc. BILLIONS of dollars of profit from war, violence, and taking cash out of the health system. It's the matrix.
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Naomi is so yummy. What a mind.
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That guy is so outclassed he is making himself look stupid.
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The techniques she talks about are similar to trauma based mind control.
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The Neo-cons want chaos in the countries they are responsible for invading. If they can destablize Russia to where it is no longer a threat, they will invade Venezuela from Columbia, Nigeria will suffer the same fate, and so will Iran if they don't surrender the control of their oil. Any resistance from Iraq and Libya will be neutralized. They will kill as many people as it takes to secure their oil, including everyone in those countries if they think they need to. The Empire either secures the oil, or it dies. It's not about money, but survival. Money is merely a tool to reach an objective.
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The Shock Doctrine has been used for centuries and recently! http://www.ae911truth.org/
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Bush, Rumsfled and Cheney are all war criminals of the first order. Send them to the Hague for criminal prosecutrion.
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@ Julius: do you imagine without any kind of funding she would be able to get around the world and make the kind of research she is doing? Do you imagine this lady sitting at the top of a skyscraper hedonised on hyper-wealth? In this systemic environment do you want to also blame me for earning money? Your statement distracts from the point, it's not 'look at her, she's one of them!' She's pointing out that we are facing a crisis whereby there is not them! There's only all of us, this involves everybody! Please pay attention.
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she became exactly what she set out to ridicule. she was manipulated and over hyped by her publishers. there are far superior books available and even better essays on the web... incidentally, why not give free copies of the book? why not leak an online version? oh I guess I know why! she has a net worth of 6 to 10 million dollars! talk about disaster capitalism! what a wretched piece of hypocritical garbage she is...
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Love that Naomi Klein! Power to the powerful! People are dumb, only the government intellectuals know how to spend money. Everyone else needs to pay their tribute! Tell them Naomi, force the people to bend to your will!
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Socialism kills. I wonder who paid this stupid bitch to say such bullshit.
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