Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’
When the fine people at RandomHouse contacted me last week and asked me if I would make mention of Naomi Klein’s new book and short film The Shock Doctrine, I was more than happy to oblige. In my view, Klein is one of the most important voices of my generation, so it’s a privilege to help promote this work in any way I can. In the days to come, a YouTube video will also be posted here on the site.
Here’s a little background information…
In the short The Shock Doctrine, author Naomi Klein and filmmakers Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón team up for an elegant illustration of a powerful idea: massive political change follows massive crisis, and it is never by accident. (Cameron Bailey)
Jonás Cuarón has directed the feature Año Uña (07) and the shorts Un Disparejo (Ro-Sham-Bo) (03) and The Shock Doctrine (co-director, 07).
Alfonso Cuarón was born in Mexico City and has directed several internationally acclaimed films, including Y Tu Mamá También (01), Children of Men (06) and The Shock Doctrine (co-director, 07).
Naomi Klein was born in Montreal. She wrote the documentary feature The Take (04). The Shock Doctrine (07) is a film by Klein and Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón.
“From Chile to China to Iraq, torture has been a silent partner in the global free market crusade. But torture is more than a tool used to enforce unwanted policies on rebellious peoples; it is also a metaphor of the shock doctrine’s underlying logic. Torture, or in CIA language “coercive interrogation,” is a set of techniques designed to put prisoners into a state of deep disorientation and shock in order to force them to make concessions against their will. …The shock doctrine mimics this process precisely, attempting to achieve on a mass scale what torture does one on one in the interrogation cell. …The original disaster – the coup, the terrorist attack, the market meltdown, the war, the tsunami, the hurricane – puts the entire population into a state of collective shock. The falling bombs, the bursts of terror, the pounding winds serve to soften up whole societies much as the blaring music and blows in the torture cells soften up prisoners. Like the terrorized prisoner who gives up the names of comrades and renounces his faith, shocked societies often give up things they would otherwise fiercely protect.”
Chile, 1973
50,000 tortured
80,000 imprisoned
Public spending cut by 50%
Incomes for the rich up 83%
45% of population in poverty
Wars – Falklands War, 1982
910 people die
Thatcher’s popularity doubles
She privatizes gas, steel, airlines, telephones
She declares war on unions
Thousands are injured
Unemployment triples
Number of poor increases by 100%
Massacres
China 1989 – hundreds killed
Thousands jailed and tortured
China becomes sweatshop to the world
China embraces “free market” capitalism
Factory wages: $1/day
Russia, 1993
Yeltsin attacks parliament
Hundreds killed
Parliament burned
Opposition arrested
72 million impoverished
17 new billionaires created
Terrorist Attacks – New York, 2001
Attacks launch “War on Terror.” It is privatized.
US spy agencies outsource 70% of their budgets
Pentagon increases budget for contractors by $137 billion/year
Department of Homeland Security spends $130 billion on private contractors
Invasions – Iraq, 2003
The most privatized war in modern history
US decrees 200 state companies will be privatized
Hundreds of thousands killed
4 million displaced
Natural Disasters – Sri Lanka, 2004
35,000 dead
Coastline handed over to hotels and industry
Nearly 1 million displaced
Fishing people forbidden to rebuild homes by the sea
For more, feel free to visit the official website at shockdoctrine.com.
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September 5th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Beware the FALSE FLAG TERROR EVENT!
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ww3/iran_cheney_orders_media_sell_iran_attack.htm
The New Yorker magazine reports that Rubin had a conversation with a member of a top neoconservative institution in Washington, who told him that “instructions” had been passed on from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:10 am
OMG
I can’t wait for this one…
On the subject of China and the sweatshops there: There is a good documentary called Mardi Gras: Made in China (Directed by David Redmon), and it’s all about a factory in China where they make the beads for the infamous New Orleans celebration of the same name. Very interesting, and revealing about the conditions within the factories there.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:19 am
[quote comment="25384"]Beware the FALSE FLAG TERROR EVENT!
http://www.infowars.com/articles/ww3/iran_cheney_orders_media_sell_iran_attack.htm
The New Yorker magazine reports that Rubin had a conversation with a member of a top neoconservative institution in Washington, who told him that “instructions” had been passed on from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day.[/quote]
Oh that had better not be true. I’ve been expecting that for a while but still… shiiiiiiiiiiit.
September 5th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I’ve been seeing mentions of this book in several places. It’s something I think I may have to pick up a copy of. I’ve been searching for someone who has recently wrote on this topic, because really, what better time than now?
September 5th, 2007 at 10:41 am
It looks good. I suppose I’ll be my usual lazy self, watch the film (if I can find it. help?) and read the book if I love the film.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:09 am
This may be unrelated, but I just became aware of the Kelowna show..
Thank you for coming to Kelowna again, Matt.
Sweet.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:44 am
There’s an interview with her in Macleans magazine, it’s a very interesting read also.
September 5th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Naomi’s first stop on her book tour is tonight at Concordia in Montreal. Unfortunatly I have a class in the same building right then. I’m considering skipping it…but I’m not actually registered in it yet, and I don’t think just not showing up is a good way to prove to a prof that they should let you in to a full class.
Damn.
September 5th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I enjoyed meeting Naomi when she premiered The Take here in Vancouver. Great, great film on labour rights and the power of the collective over the corporation. I have also seen her mother speak - Bonnie Sherr Klein, herself a feminist and documentary filmmaker. Throw in her brother Seth - head of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and her father, a prominent physician, and you have quite the family!! I would love to sit in on one of their family dinners. Anyhow, sounds like a great film, I look forward to it.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
‘No Logo’ was an interesting read, thought it lacked any real sort of suggested solution. It was mostly “here’s the problem, the history of the problem, and how bad the problem has gotten, but as far as a solution here’s some baseless advice to join local rebel groups and not buy Starbucks”.
“The Rebel Sell: Why The Culture Can’t Be Jammed” by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter is a much deeper, sociological and cultural exporation of branding and consumer culture. Plus they have a passage destroying the opening chapter of ‘No Logo’.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Oooooh she’s good, I loved No Logo!
September 5th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I like that Naomi Klein has attracted attention to issues that may otherwise not be in the minds of the people, even those who usually give a damn. I remember a fellow telling me about No Logo years ago, he was already a conscientious guy but didn’t have that level of awareness, and it made an impact on him.
The problem remains as to how to reach those that are too stubborn and close-minded and prejudice and comfortable with their lifestyles to read Klein. I know more than a few that wouldn’t pick up one of her books because she is a leftist feminist (or some similar label). These are the people that need these messages the most.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Just bought it. Thanks for the heads up Matt.
September 5th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Love Naomi, I just bought this book tonight to complete my Klein collection.
September 6th, 2007 at 11:04 am
saw her last night at Concordia and it was pretty damn sweet.
buy a copy of the book on amazon.ca (its a fucking rip off everywhere else)
September 8th, 2007 at 7:57 am
This list of “shocks” through history, and their supposedly causally direct consequence below is way, way oversimplified. As if Tieneman square was a communist plot to commercialize China. Any single one of these events is a complex convegence of various social, economic, and political factors. Let’s use the Tieneman square example again - do we really believe that Tieneman Square was causal to what is happening in China right now? One tiny puzzle piece in a much bigger kaleidoscope of forces at play. And as if the Falkans war weakened the British psyche into being brainwashed by Thatcher? They embraced her with open arms, and would have with or without the Falkan war. The UK was hungry for Thatcherism, for better or for worse, and it wasn’t because of the Falkans that she held office for three terms.
Naomi Klein is an important voice - but she is one voice, and she is sensationalist and polemical. Let’s keep a critical eye and not just take her word, or anyone’s for that matter, as law.