The Shock Doctrine: the rise of Disaster Capitalism, N.Klein

[scholarsOrAcademics]

Just finished reading it. A quick note now, more later.
The endorsement by Chalmers Johnson is worth noting.
"Naomei Klein's expose of neoliberal economics is certain to be sensationall She rips away the 'free trade' and globalization ideologies that disguise a conspiracy to privatize war and disaster and grab public property for the rich few. Klein's is a long-needed analysis of our headlong flight back to feudalism under the guise of social science and 'freedom.'"

[Lasher]

1. Interesting.

Might read it myself.

[AllieB]

2. I'm on page 150. Milton Friedman was insane.

How can he possibly not have an iota of shame about what happened in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile because of his interference in their economies?

[clear eye]

9. He was so in love with his own theories that he must have assumed that w/o his tampering

things would have been worse. Anything that wasn't done according to his specifications was "socialist" and "anti-democratic", which for him meant enslavement by demons from the masses. Read what Greg Palast who studied under him in Chicago had to say about him in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. "As Milton Friedman puts it in his seminal "Capitalism and Freedom," because profit-making is the essence of democracy (!), any government that puruses antimarket policies is being anit-democratic, no matter how much informed popular support they might enjoy. Therefore it is best to restrict governments to the job of protecting private property and enforcing contracts, and to limit polictical debate to minor issues."

[Old n Weary]

3. Frightening... ain't it?

When I read it I was throughly pissed after the introduction!

[MJW]

4. I got it today!

I will start on it soon

[scholarsOrAcademics]

5. back to feudalism - strong language

excerpt - "Klein's is a long-needed analysis of our headlong flight back to feudalism under the guise of social science and 'freedom.'"
Maybe this list does not know the name Chalmers Johnson. Does the book SORROWS of EMPIRE: Militarism,Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2004)ring a bell? He is not one to take lightly. His assertion of a flight back to feudalism under the guise of social science (and freedom) puts Klein's thesis of the Chicago Boys economics in a different, older frame.
The social sciences role in the Cold War is also explored in the book UNIVERSITIES and EMPIRE: Money and Politics in the Social Sciences, edited by Christopher Simpson (1976). I've read the essay "Play It Again Sam: The Practice and Apology of Development by Irene L. Gendzier at least twice, and also her book. Klein does not seem to have read any critiques of Development.

[bhikkhu]

6. Just a quick kick - anyone who hasn't read klein really should.

[tosh]

7. Reading it now.

[pam4water]

8. I read it when it came out

It was very good. I skip much of the opening of the book. When Klein used that poor tortured woman and a kind of microcosm of the shock doctrine. It did not work entirely as a microcosm of the effect of the "shock doctrine". I felt she spent too long on poor woman in, a book that had a lot to cover. Also it ground down the reader and the tone was too something... (I can't think of the work right now...) After I skipped ahead the tone shifted and I could stand read about the horrors of the shock doctrine.

The first time I heard about Milton Friedman was in Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. There is a lot of overlap in what the two books cover. Klein did a better job of connected the dots between Milton Friedman and Augusto Pinochet than Palast. And flush out the story greatly.

It's funny I heard the phrase -- "the brick" (Milton Friedman's economic plan in book form)-- referred to ominously a few movies, but I never know what it was until I read the Shock Doctrine.

Here is hoping they don't use the current economics shock to stuff and more "free market" reforms down our throats. I think Friedman is discredited enough so it wont happen.

[scholarsOrAcademics]

10. dog-paddling in Swamp

an exercise in poetic encapsulation of the conjuring future by the Bush Bounce President. This morning we were treated to the projection of a jolt to the economy. The tail wags the dog, the Dog being the 'ECONOMY'. So what happens when the infrastructure is moves to SPP and the energy corridor from Canade to Mexico?
I vaguely remember Aristotle as the originator of the expression - The Swamp. Was it in reference to the destiny of Democracy?

[OffWithTheirHeads]

11. Just started it

It should be required reading for everyone who can read.

[angryfirelord]

12. Yay! My library has it!

I look forward to reading it over the next few days. I also recommend Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade (which seems to fit in the same ballpark).

[angryfirelord]

13. Well, I'm about halfway through

And it's certainly a good read. However, Klein seems to have a bad habit of quoting Friedman out of context. Not that I support Friedman in anyway, but Friedman was never involved nor received any money from Pinochet or his cronies. Klein claims that free markets lead to an oligarchy rule over the people through oppression and shock techniques. However, this is a contradictory statement since in order to have an oligarchy, you need to have a strong, interventionist government. A corporate oligarchy requires a strong State, but then that system is no longer a free market. A free market implies that no government intervention is involved whatsoever. Corporations cannot have any political power in a free market system. Much more of her statements were debunked here: http://www.reason.com/news/show/128903.html

Klein's book would be better sub-titled: "The Rise of Disaster Corporatism" instead. The book I mentioned in my above post has a much more solid argument against free trade and free market capitalism.

[amyrose2712]

14. I am starting it tonight.

I will comment more after I get into it more. It is a LONG one. May take me a while.