Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" may well be one of the most important books of our time.
The book draws disturbing parallels among Sri Lanka following the tsunami, post-Katrina New Orleans and Iraq.
She makes the case that free-market doctrine is, in reality, "disaster capitalism." Klein examines the push of free marketers such as Milton Friedman and his disciples to get rid of that which exists and start over from scratch when selling free-market economics in the third world.
This book delineates two 1950s experimental laboratories funded by the U.S. government. One was a secret research project at McGill University in Montreal that erased the memories of psychiatric patients through sensory deprivation and electroshock. This experiement was the foundation of torture practices in Augusto Pinochet’s Chile (with the help of the CIA) and in Guantanamo Bay.
The other experiment, a program at the University of Chicago, turned its economics department into an assembly line for politicians from around the world.
Under Friedman, foreign exchange students were taught that their countries could be recast as free-market utopias once the existing order was wiped out. Klein makes the case that the free-market and democracy going hand-in hand is myth.
She convincingly poses the thesis that free market capitalism relies on disaster and crisis everywhere from the Middle East and Eastern Europe to Russia and elsewhere. It is not the result of the peaceful persuasion of myth.
Disaster capitalism, Klein argues, uses catastrophies and chaos to promote privatization which then turns into thriving new economies and is the result of experiments hatched more than 50 years ago.
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This book argues a good case that "we the people" have abdicated our democratic responsibilities and that this has opened the door to lying, corruption and for some to blindly follow those in power.
Gore writes with conviction. Where was this Gore six years ago?
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Patricia Rogero has commented on (2) products.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Abridged) by Naomi Klein
Patricia Rogero, September 18, 2007
Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" may well be one of the most important books of our time.The book draws disturbing parallels among Sri Lanka following the tsunami, post-Katrina New Orleans and Iraq.
She makes the case that free-market doctrine is, in reality, "disaster capitalism." Klein examines the push of free marketers such as Milton Friedman and his disciples to get rid of that which exists and start over from scratch when selling free-market economics in the third world.
This book delineates two 1950s experimental laboratories funded by the U.S. government. One was a secret research project at McGill University in Montreal that erased the memories of psychiatric patients through sensory deprivation and electroshock. This experiement was the foundation of torture practices in Augusto Pinochet’s Chile (with the help of the CIA) and in Guantanamo Bay.
The other experiment, a program at the University of Chicago, turned its economics department into an assembly line for politicians from around the world.
Under Friedman, foreign exchange students were taught that their countries could be recast as free-market utopias once the existing order was wiped out. Klein makes the case that the free-market and democracy going hand-in hand is myth.
She convincingly poses the thesis that free market capitalism relies on disaster and crisis everywhere from the Middle East and Eastern Europe to Russia and elsewhere. It is not the result of the peaceful persuasion of myth.
Disaster capitalism, Klein argues, uses catastrophies and chaos to promote privatization which then turns into thriving new economies and is the result of experiments hatched more than 50 years ago.
(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
The Assault on Reason: How the Politics of Fear, Secrecy, and Blind Faith Subvert Wise Decision Making, Degrade Our Democracy, and Put Our Country and Our World in Peril by Al Gore
Patricia Rogero, May 31, 2007
This book argues a good case that "we the people" have abdicated our democratic responsibilities and that this has opened the door to lying, corruption and for some to blindly follow those in power.Gore writes with conviction. Where was this Gore six years ago?
(27 of 46 readers found this comment helpful)