The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (2007)

This is an amazing and clarifying book, the best non-fiction I’ve read in years.

“The Shock Syndrome” is basically a history of economic colonialism during the last forty years. Klein researches everything in great detail, but the book never bogs down. It races all over the globe, from Chile to South Africa to China, describing the movement of an economic model that has transformed the planet, harnessing or fomenting shock after shock. Klein does a brilliant job tying this in to the use of shock therapy in psychology, and to the continuing use of torture as a tool of state control.

One thing that did shock me in reading this book is how anti-democratic the corporatist movement has been. Why am I shocked? I guess some part of me believed that “free markets” had something to do with general freedom to choose. But in so many instances, it’s been just the opposite. State assets, the last economic frontier, are often taken away from the community amid great outcry. And this outcry – and many other expressions of the community voice, including the ballot - are too often cruelly suppressed in order to facilitate a more corporate-friendly environment.

Democracy and the corporatist world are not natural allies. In fact, this book shows how feudal we’ve become in the last forty years – and in the last chapter, shows some efforts to move away from this model, and to reassert the will of the people over corporate ownership of all resources. Shocks do wear off.
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Terrifically important read! Very depressing at times to see how often the U.S. has had a hand in affairs of other countries. ( )

A must read! The book essentially documents how greed has now stretched fully into the profiting off disasters around the globe, both natural and man-made. If mother nature doesn't create a disaster after which the private sector can go in and reconstruct, then governments step in and create disasters (wars, coups, "skirmishes", etc.) so private industry can close the loop and reconstruct what the disaster destroyed. Again, a must read, and very enjoyable. ( )

I'm going to begin this review with the most important part: Read this book.

I've wanted to read this book for quite a while, being that I like to think I'm not a complete political dumbass. I know that George "Dubya" Bush's administration was corrupt and a disease-ridden greed breeding-ground. I knew that Dick Cheney isn't to be trusted as far as a paraplegic could throw him, that Dubya himself is far from being the no-brain borderline illiterate that he liked to play on TV, and is beyond devious. And I may just piss off a lot of people here, but Obama's no better. What happened to withdrawing our troops? What happened to not allowing lobbyists into his administration? What happened to "greater transparency in Washington"? I could go on and on...

I consider myself to be somewhat informed, but this book made me feel like I was born yesterday. I've lived through many of the conflicts detailed in this book, and while it's true that I was a child for most of them, I've also lived through the last 8 years when I was not a child, and I feel woefully ignorant of the world after having read this book.

It was definitely an eye-opener. I've never been much for economics, I grasp the basic concepts (supply and demand, etc), but it was never one of my strong points in school. And in school, mine at least, we were given a basic overview, a test, and a grade, then sent on our way. There was no in depth analysis, no history to examine the different types in a real life scenario, no discussion of how economics can influence policy or politics. So, essentially, we're left completely unprepared for econo-political manipulation.

Klein begins the book by talking about Dr. Ewen Cameron, and his techniques in the 50's for trying to create a blank slate of the mind in order to rebuild a new and better personality in place of a "broken" one. To such breakages including anxiety or depression or OCD, he would apply massive doses of experimental drugs - LSD, PCP, etc - along with multiple shock therapies at many times the average or recommended limit, as well as isolation, disorientation, and depersonalization techniques. He was determined to "peel away the onion layers of the mind" and arrive at a blank slate which he could then rewrite with the desired attributes... "You are a good wife and mother," or "You are not afraid of public places," etc. Many, many people left his "care" more damaged and broken than when they came in, which memory loss, muscle damage or bone fractures or broken teeth from the high voltages used on them, to name just a few physical effects, and many of them had these techniques performed on them without their knowledge or consent. Terrifying. This is the good doctor that assisted so willingly in the CIA's research in their mind-control and brainwashing program, MKULTRA.

Klein mentions this with good reason, which is that a traumatic event, or a shock, is the best time to shove through massive and sweeping economic policy changes. While the general public is busy trying to put their lives back together, they aren't looking at what is being done behind the curtain, and therefore cannot interfere. The type of changes outlined here are ones that are easily recognizable if you know to look. Klein called it "Extreme Capitalism", it's essentially a free market economy in which all goods and services are privatized and unregulated. The stated theory is that with all government "interference" (read: regulation) removed, the free market plan will just magically stabilize itself and be a perfect economy. Except, this is patently impossible - even a blind person can see that. Greed prevents it. People who own the industry that's been privatized will want ever more profits, which means higher costs, which leads to inflation, while people who have lost their goverment or union provided jobs to privatized industry have no means to pay for the goods or services, which leads to more and more desperate poor while the rich profit off of their need to eat.

Naturally, to prevent revolt and uprisings, harsher and harsher methods are needed to keep the people under control, which is where terror comes in. People are tortured, taken from their homes, kidnapped, imprisoned, and outright murdered to 1) remove the threat from people who stand against the economic misery that they've been subjected to, and 2) serve as a message to anyone else thinking of making a stand. Klein outlines country after country which has given Extreme Capitalism a go, and in every case, it ruins the economy of the country, and the lives of those who live there, while fattening the bank accounts of a select few elite who profit off of the masses. This perfect plan creates outrageous national deficits, unheard of levels of unemployed, and astronomical profits for the companies which have been privatized.

I'll never look at my government, or any government, the same way again. Greedy exploitation at any cost. What better than an unwinnable and perpetual war then to continue the exploitation and corruption? Ugh. It's sickening. National identity, heritage and history are destroyed to make way for Wal-marts and McDonalds and 7-11 stores. Iraq's national museum, which housed priceless and irreplaceable artifacts from the beginning of human history, was looted and many artifacts are destroyed or missing, all in an attempt to wipe away the cultural memory so that there will be a clean slate for the new corporate economy and nation.

This review sucks. Just read the book. Really. I can't do it justice. It's important, and if you don't feel sick afterward, I might suspect that you're a multi-gajillionaire corporate mogul just stepping off of some newly-impoverished country's back on your way to the next. =

4.22.10/ Edit to add: In honor of Earth Day, I was sent this slide show, and I think it's relevant, so I'm linking to it here. www.Miniature-Earth.com Watch the slide-show. I hope it affects you. ( )

ebook version