Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007. 558 pages. Website at www.nologo.org
Naomi Klein's "shock doctrine" is an ad-hoc theory of how capitalism
advances its agenda by using social disruption as an excuse to further
disenfranchise the middle and lower classes. The primary example of this
is Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys -- economists who specialize in
rationalizing the free market at the expense of the masses. The effects of
such mesmerizing ruling-class ideologies are akin to the CIA's mind-blanking
experiments on individuals, except that they are used globally on entire
populations. There are several excellent pages in this book that criticize
organizations such as Ford Foundation and even Amnesty International, for
their failure to address the deeper issues.
The main advantage of Klein's analysis is that she sees through the
hypocrisy of American liberalism, and the duplicity of American economic
theory. And the main disadvantage of this book is that Klein shows no
interest in Marxist philosophy and critical theory. The "shock doctrine"
angle is a convenient journalistic hook that allows her to cover a wide
range of free-market transgressions over the last 50 years, but it's
not a viable theory for committed activists. In the end, her scattergun
observations are properly on-target and revealing, but not intellectually
satisfying.
ISBN 0-8050-7983-1
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