Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine
Buck September 12th, 2007 - 7:41 pmKlein draws a parallel between the way individuals are broken in interrogation through shock (read: torture) and by the way societies can be reshaped through the same methods. When you have a major disaster or war - whether it be a smaller war like the Falklands war, an attack like 9/11 which made Americans obedient, fearful and submissive to authority - or a natural disaster like Sri Lanka or Katrina, people can be shoved aside. So 9/11 was used to launch the “war on terror” which included a 137 billion/year increase in spending by the Pentagon by “contractors” and the Department of Homeland “Security” spending 130 billion on contractors. Katrina, of course, led to the city being cleansed of undesirables and a huge land-grab by speculators. Meanwhile Blackwater mercenaries have been used to keep ex-residents from returning and reclaiming their houses. Less known to Americans is the Sri Lanka disaster, in which most residents (1 million) weren’t allowed to return (including fishermen) and the coastline was turned over to hotels and to the tourism industry.
-from Ian Welsh’s diary
Good stuff! And scary!
I urge you to take the time to watch/listen to the following six videos (below the fold). Quite an eye-opener!
Visit Naomi Klein’s site: The Shock Doctrine
(hat tip to Mirth - thanks!)
September 12th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Buck, I’m so happy that you have posted the vids of Naomi Klein’s speech. What she has to say is stunningly important and she also is a pleasure to listen to.
Everyone, please find the time to watch all 6 vids. They are eye opening and loaded with new ideas waiting to be discussed.
A short movie was created from her speech and it was recently shown to raves at the Toronto Film Festival. Scroll down through this link with her interview to find it:
http://canada.aol.com/torontof.....FF_KleinQA
It’s impossible not to think of 9/11 while she speaks, and to be even more sure that as our shock from 9/11 wears off, more shock is needed (Iran? Another attack here?) but Ms Klein also stirred my thinking about other things.
How can we resist these shocks that the Neos use to dominate us? Mass actions like protest marches are, mho, useless. We could march one million people up 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and it will not make one bit of difference. “They” know that 1) we’ll make some noise and then go home to settle in front of our TVs and 2) if a march gets out of control, ALL of the means to subdue the protesters are in place.
So another way to protest, peacefully and from the comforts of our homes, is for us to opt out of the pervasive consumerism that keeps us enslaved. It can be done and it might well turn the tide in our favor, but it will require inconvenience and some sacrifice and, honestly, I’m not sure Americans are ready to do more than rant and then buy more stuff that we do not need to have happy and productive lives.
It may be that things will have to get much worse before we rouse from our inaction. And they will. We have the power to stop this gov’t and those behind this gov’t. I simply don’t think we have the will.
I could be wrong…and I hope I am.