A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian. Examples of dystopias are characterized in books such as Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and The Handmaid's Tale. The Iron Heel was described by Erich Fromm as "the earliest of the modern Dystopian"^[1]. Dystopian societies feature different kinds of repressive social control systems, and various forms of active and passive coercion. Ideas and works about dystopian societies often explore the concept of humans abusing technology and humans individually and collectively coping, or not being able to properly cope with technology that has progressed far more rapidly than humanity's spiritual evolution. Dystopian societies are often imagined as police states, with unlimited power over the citizens. The word derives from Ancient Greek: δυσ-, "bad, hard",^[2] and Ancient Greek: τόπος, "place, landscape"^[3]. It can alternatively be called cacotopia,^[4][5] or anti-utopia.

Etymology[link]

The word dystopia represents a counterpart of utopia, a term originally coined by Thomas More in his book of that title completed in 1516.^[6]

The first known use of dystopian, as recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary, is a speech given before the British House of Commons by John Stuart Mill in 1868, in which Mill denounced the government's Irish land policy: "It is, perhaps, too complimentary to call them Utopians, they ought rather to be called dys-topians, or caco-topians. What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be practicable; but what they appear to favour is too bad to be practicable."^{[7][8][9][10]}

Counter-utopia, anti-utopia[link]

Many dystopias found in fictional and artistic works present a utopian society with at least one fatal flaw,^[11] whereas a utopian society is founded on the good life, a dystopian society’s dreams of improvement are overshadowed by stimulating fears of the "ugly consequences of present-day behavior."^[12] People are alienated and individualism is restricted by the government. An early example of a dystopian novel is Rasselas (1759), by Samuel Johnson, set in Ethiopia.

Society[link]

In the novel Brave New World, written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley, a class system is prenatally designated in terms of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. In We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin, people are permitted to live out of public view for only an hour a day. They are not only referred to by numbers instead of names, but are neither " but "ciphers". In the lower castes, in Brave New World, single embryos are "bokanovskified", so that they produce between eight and ninety-six identical siblings, making the citizens as uniform as possible.^[13]

Some dystopian works emphasize the pressure to conform in terms of a requirement not to excel. In these works, the society is ruthlessly egalitarian, in which ability and accomplishment, or even competence, are suppressed or stigmatized as forms of inequality, as in Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron. Similarly, in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the dystopia represses the intellectuals with particular force, because most people are willing to accept it, and the resistance to it consists mostly of intellectuals.^[14]

Dystopian governments do not usually care for the well-being or safety of their citizens. They focus on complete control and extortion of their people. This is all in order to maintain power.

Social groups[link]

Concepts and symbols of religion may come under attack in a dystopia. In Brave New World, for example, the establishment of the state included lopping off the tops of all crosses (as symbols of Christianity) to make them "T"s, (as symbols of Henry Ford's Model T).^[15] But compare Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, wherein a Christianity-based theocratic regime rules the future United States.^[16]

In some of the fictional dystopias, such as Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, the family has been eradicated and continuing efforts are deployed to keep it from reestablishing itself as a social institution. In Brave New World, where children are reproduced artificially, the concepts "mother" and "father" are considered obscene. In some novels, the State is hostile to motherhood: for example, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, children are organized to spy on their parents; and in We, the escape of a pregnant woman from OneState is a revolt.^[17]

Nature[link]

Fictional dystopias are commonly urban and frequently isolate their characters from all contact with the natural world.^[18] Sometimes they require their characters to avoid nature, as when walks are regarded as dangerously anti-social in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.^{[citation needed]} In Brave New World, the lower classes of society are conditioned to be afraid of nature, but also to visit the countryside and consume transportation and games to stabilize society.^{[citation needed]} A few "green" fictional dystopias do exist, such as in Michael Carson's short story "The Punishment of Luxury", and Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. The latter is set in the aftermath of nuclear war, "a post-nuclear holocaust Kent, where technology has reduced to the level of the Iron Age"^{[19][citation needed]}

Politics[link]

In When the Sleeper Wakes, H. G. Wells depicted the governing class as hedonistic and shallow.^[20] George Orwell contrasted Wells's world to that depicted in Jack London's The Iron Heel, where the dystopian rulers are brutal and dedicated to the point of fanaticism, which Orwell considered more plausible.^[21]

Whereas the political principles at the root of fictional utopias (or "perfect worlds") are idealistic in principle, intending positive consequences for their inhabitants,^[22] the political principles on which fictional dystopias are based are flawed and result in negative consequences for the inhabitants of the dystopian world, which is portrayed as oppressive.^[11]

Dystopias are often filled with pessimistic views of the ruling class or government that is brutal or uncaring ruling with an "iron hand" or "iron fist".^{[citation needed]} These dystopian government establishments often have protagonists or groups that lead a "resistance" to enact change within their government.^[23]

Dystopian political situations are depicted in novels such as Parable of the Sower, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451; and in such films as Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Brazil, FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, and Soylent Green.

Economics[link]

The economic structures of dystopian societies in literature and other media have many variations, as the economy often relates directly to the elements that the writer is depicting as the source of the oppression. However, there are several archetypes that such societies tend to follow.

A commonly occurring theme is that the state plans the economy, as shown in such works as Ayn Rand's Anthem and Henry Kuttner's short story The Iron Standard. A contrasting theme is where the planned economy is planned and controlled by corporatist and fascist elements. A prime example of this is reflected in Noman Jewison's 1975 Rollerball film. Some dystopias, such as Nineteen Eighty-Four, feature black markets with goods that are dangerous and difficult to obtain, or the characters may be totally at the mercy of the state-controlled economy. Such systems usually have a lack of efficiency, as seen in stories like Philip Jose Farmer's Riders of the Purple Wage, featuring a bloated welfare system in which total freedom from responsibility has encouraged an underclass prone to any form of antisocial behavior. Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano depicts a dystopia in which the centrally controlled economic system has indeed made material abundance plentiful, but deprived the mass of humanity of meaningful labor; virtually all work is menial and unsatisfying, and only a small number of the small group that achieves education is admitted to the elite and its work.^[24]

Even in dystopias where the economic system is not the source of the society's flaws, as in Brave New World, the state often controls the economy. In Brave New World, a character, reacting with horror to the suggestion of not being part of the social body, cites as a reason that everyone works for everyone else.^[25]

Other works feature extensive privatization and corporatism, where privately owned and unaccountable large corporations have effectively replaced the government in setting policy and making decisions. They manipulate, infiltrate, control, bribe, are contracted by, or otherwise function as government. This is seen in the novel Jennifer Government and the movies Alien, Robocop, Visioneers, Max Headroom, Soylent Green, THX 1138, WALL-E and Rollerball. Rule-by-corporation is common in the cyberpunk genre, as in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (made into the movie Blade Runner) and Snow Crash'.

Caste systems[link]

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In dystopian literature the advanced technology is controlled exclusively by the group in power, while the oppressed population is limited to technology comparable to or more primitive than what we have today. In order to emphasize the degeneration of society, the standard of living among the lower and middle classes is generally poorer than that of their equivalents in contemporary industrialized society.

In Nineteen Eighty-Four, for example, the Inner Party, the upper class of society, also has a standard of living that at least appears lower than the upper classes of today.^[26]

In contrast to Nineteen Eighty-Four, in Brave New World and Equilibrium, people enjoy much higher material living standards in exchange for the loss of other qualities in their lives, such as independent thought and emotional depth.^{[citation needed]}

In Ypsilon Minus by Herbert W. Franke, people are divided into numerous alphabetically ranked groups. Similarly, in Brave New World, people are divided into castes ranging from Alpha-Plus to Epsilon, with the lower classes having reduced brain function and conditioning to make them satisfied with their position in life.

Dystopia in Literature[link]

The Hunger Games trilogy (2008-2010) by Suzanne Collins - After the destruction of North America, a nation known as "Panem" is split up into 12 districts. Each year, each district is required to produce to tributes to participate in The Hunger Games. A film adaptation of The Hunger Games was released in 2012.

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury - The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed. A film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 was released in 1966.

Unwind (2007) by Neal Shusterman - After a civil war in the near future, a compromise between Pro-life and Pro-choice was reached in the form of "The Bill of Life" and "Unwinding". It allowed parents of children between 13-18 to have their children's organs harvested in "the ultimate sacrifice".

Characteristics of dystopian fiction[link]

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As fictional dystopias are often set in a future projected virtual time and/or space involving technological innovations not accessible in actual present reality, dystopian fiction is often classified generically as science fiction, a subgenre of speculative fiction.

Back stories[link]

Because a fictional universe has to be constructed, a selectively told backstory of a war, revolution, uprising, critical overpopulation, or other disaster is often introduced early in the narrative. This results in a shift in emphasis of control, from previous systems of government to a government run by corporations, totalitarian dictatorships or bureaucracies; or from previous social norms to a changed society and new (and often disturbing) social norms.

Because dystopian literature typically depicts events that take place in the future, it often features technology more advanced than that of contemporary society.

Hero[link]

Unlike utopian fiction, which often features an outsider to have the world shown to him, dystopias seldom feature an outsider as the protagonist. While such a character would more clearly understand the nature of the society, based on comparison to his society, the knowledge of the outside culture subverts the power of the dystopia. When such outsiders are major characters—such as John the Savage in Brave New World—their societies cannot assist them against the dystopia.

The story usually centers on a protagonist who questions the society, often feeling intuitively that something is terribly wrong, such as Guy Montag in Ray Bradbury's novella Fahrenheit 451, Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, or V in Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. The hero comes to believe that escape or even overturning the social order is possible and decides to act at the risk of his own life; this may appear as irrational even to him, but he still acts.^[27] The hero's point of view usually clashes with the others' perception, most notably in Brave New World, revealing that concepts of utopia and dystopia are tied to each other and the only difference between them lies on a matter of opinion.

Another popular archetype of hero in the more modern dystopian literature is the Vonnegut hero, a hero who is in high-standing within the social system, but sees how wrong everything is, and attempts to either change the system or bring it down, such as Paul Proteus of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Player Piano or Winston Niles Rumfoord in The Sirens of Titan.

The Domination is perhaps unusual in featuring members of the upper caste of the dystopian society (the von Shrakenbergs, Myfwany, Yolande Ingolfsson, various Draka military members) as among the protagonists although serfs (Marya and Yasmin, from among conquered people) questioning that society are also included, along with international enemies of that dystopian society (such as Lefarge). This may be an example of the anti-hero.

Conflict[link]

In many cases, the hero's conflict brings him to a representative of the dystopia who articulates its principles, from Mustapha Mond in Brave New World to O'Brien in Nineteen Eighty-Four.^[28]

There is usually a group of people somewhere in the society who are not under the complete control of the state, and in whom the hero of the novel usually puts his hope, although often he or she still fails to change anything. In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four they are the "proles" (Latin for "offspring", from which "proletariat" is derived), in Huxley's Brave New World they are the people on the reservation, and in We by Zamyatin they are the people outside the walls of the One State. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, they are the "book people" past the river and outside the city.

Climax and dénouement[link]

The story is often (but not always) unresolved even if the hero manages to escape or destroy the dystopia. That is, the narrative may deal with individuals in a dystopian society who are unsatisfied, and may rebel, but ultimately fail to change anything. Sometimes they themselves end up changed to conform to the society's norms, such as in With Folded Hands, by Jack Williamson. This narrative arc to a sense of hopelessness can be found in such classic dystopian works as Nineteen Eighty-Four. It contrasts with much fiction of the future, in which a hero succeeds in resolving conflicts or otherwise changes things for the better.

Destruction[link]

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The destruction of dystopia is frequently a very different sort of work than one in which it is preserved. Indeed, the subversion of a dystopian society, with its potential for conflict and adventure, is a staple of science fiction stories.^[29] Poul Anderson's short story "Sam Hall" depicts the subversion of a dystopia heavily dependent on surveillance. Robert A. Heinlein's "If This Goes On—" liberates the United States from a fundamentalist theocracy, where the underground rebellion is organized by the Freemasons. Cordwainer Smith's The Rediscovery of Man series depicts a society recovering from its dystopian period, beginning in "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" with the discovery that its utopia was impossible to maintain. Although these and other societies are typical of dystopias in many ways, they all have not only flaws but exploitable flaws. The ability of the protagonists to subvert the society also subverts the monolithic power typical of a dystopia. In some cases the hero manages to overthrow the dystopia by motivating the (previously apathetic) populace. In the dystopian video game Half-Life 2 the downtrodden citizens of City 17 rally around the figure of Gordon Freeman and overthrow their Combine oppressors.

Destruction of the fictional dystopia may not be possible, but—if it does not completely control its world—escaping from it may be an alternative. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Montag, succeeds in fleeing and finding tramps who have dedicated themselves to memorizing books to preserve them. But ironically, the dystopian society in Fahrenheit 451 is destroyed in the end — by nuclear missiles. In the book Logan's Run, the main characters make their way to an escape from the otherwise inevitable euthanasia on their 21st birthday (30th in the later film version). Because such dystopias must necessarily control less of the world than the protagonist can reach, and the protagonist can elude capture, this motif also subverts the dystopia's power. In Lois Lowry's The Giver the main character Jonas is able to run away from 'The Community' and escapes to 'Elsewhere' where people have memories.

Sometimes, this escape leads to the inevitable: the protagonist making a mistake that usually brings about the end of a rebel society, usually living where people think is a legend. This concept is brought to life in Scott Westerfeld's novel Uglies. The main character accidentally brings the government into the secret settlement of the Smoke. She then infiltrates the government to escape, but chooses to join the society for the greater good.

Works with dystopian themes in various media[link]

• List of dystopian comics
• List of dystopian literature
• List of dystopian films
• List of dystopian music, TV programs, and games

See also[link]

• Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
• Alternate history
• Cyberpunk
• New world order (politics)
• New World Order (conspiracy theory)
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Social science fiction
• Soft science fiction
• Utopian and dystopian fiction

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up dystopia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Dystopian related articles
• Dystopic Horror Reality

Rachel Maddow
Maddow hosting KPTK's "Changing the Media, Changing America" event in Seattle
Born	Rachel Anne Maddow (1973-04-01) April 1, 1973 (age 39) Castro Valley, California, U.S.
Education	B.A., Stanford University D.Phil, University of Oxford
Occupation	News anchor Political commentator Television host
Notable credit(s)	The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC) The Rachel Maddow Show (Air America Radio)
Website
www.rachelmaddow.com

Rachel Anne Maddow (pronounced /ˈmædoʊ/; born April 1, 1973) is an American television host, political commentator, and author.^[1][2] Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC.^[3] Her syndicated talk radio program of the same name aired on Air America Radio. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor of a prime-time news program in the United States.^[4][5][6][7]

Asked about her political views by the Valley Advocate, Maddow replied, "I'm undoubtedly a liberal, which means that I'm in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform."^[8]

Early life and education[link]

Maddow was born in Castro Valley, California. Her father, Robert B. "Bob" Maddow, is a former United States Air Force captain who resigned his commission the year before her birth and found civilian work as a lawyer for the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Her mother, Elaine Maddow (née Gosse), is a school program administrator from Newfoundland, Canada.^[9][10][11] She has one older brother, David. Her father is of Russian and Dutch descent and her mother is of English and Irish ancestry.^[11] Maddow's mother was raised a strict Roman Catholic, and Maddow herself grew up in a community that her mother has described as "very conservative."^[12][13] Maddow was a competitive athlete and played three sports in high school.^[14] Referencing John Hughes films, she describes herself in high school as "a cross between the jock and the antisocial girl."^[13]

A graduate of Castro Valley High School in Castro Valley, California, she attended Stanford University. While a freshman, she was outed by the college newspaper when an interview with her was published by the student newspaper before she could tell her parents.^[15] Maddow earned a degree in public policy from Stanford in 1994.^[16] At graduation she was awarded the John Gardner Fellowship.^[17] She was also the recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship and began her postgraduate study in 1995 at Lincoln College, Oxford. In 2001, she earned a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in politics from Oxford University.^[18] Her thesis is titled HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons (supervisor: Dr Lucia Zedner). She was the first openly gay American to win a Rhodes scholarship.^[19][20]

Radio career[link]

Maddow's first radio hosting job was at WRNX (100.9 FM) in Holyoke, Massachusetts, after she entered and won a contest the station held to find a new on-air personality.^[21] She was hired to co-host WRNX's morning show, The Dave in the Morning Show. She went on to host Big Breakfast on WRSI, in Northampton, Massachusetts, for two years. She left the show in March 2004 to join the new Air America.^[18] There she hosted Unfiltered along with Chuck D (of the hip hop group Public Enemy) and Lizz Winstead (co-creator of The Daily Show), until its cancellation in March 2005.^[22] Two weeks after the cancellation of Unfiltered in April 2005, Maddow's weekday two-hour radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, began airing; in March 2008 it gained an hour, broadcasting from 6 to 9 p.m. EST with David Bender filling in the third hour for the call-in section, when Maddow was on TV assignment. In September 2008, the show's length returned to two hours when Maddow began a nightly MSNBC television program. In February 2009, after renewing her contract with Air America, Maddow returned to the 5 am hour-long slot.^[23] Her last Air America show was on January 21, 2010, two weeks before its owners filed for bankruptcy.^[24]

Television career[link]

In June 2005, Maddow became a regular panelist on MSNBC's Tucker.^[25] During and after the November 2006 election, she was a frequent guest on CNN's Paula Zahn Now. In January 2008, Maddow became a MSNBC political analyst and was a regular panelist on MSNBC's Race for the White House with David Gregory and MSNBC's election coverage,^[26] as well as a frequent contributor on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.^[18]

In April 2008, Maddow was the substitute host for Countdown with Keith Olbermann, her first time hosting a program on MSNBC. Maddow described herself on air as "nervous." Keith Olbermann complimented her work, and she was brought back to host Countdown the next month. The show she hosted was the highest rated news program among people ages 25 to 54, a key demographic in ratings.^[27] For her success, the next Monday, Olbermann ranked Maddow third in his show's segment "World's Best Persons".^[28] In July 2008, while Olbermann was on vacation, Maddow filled in again for several broadcasts and, on July 21, for half the show.^[29] Maddow also filled in for David Gregory as host of Race for the White House.^[18]

[edit] The Rachel Maddow Show

In August 2008, MSNBC announced The Rachel Maddow Show would replace Verdict with Dan Abrams in the network's 9 p.m. slot the following month.^[30][31] Following its debut, the show topped Countdown as the highest rated show on MSNBC on several occasions.^[32][33] After being on air for more than a month, Maddow's program doubled the audience that hour.^[34]

Early reviews for her show were mostly positive. The Los Angeles Times writer Matea Gold stated Maddow "finds the right formula on MSNBC,"^[35] and The Guardian writes Maddow has become the "star of America's cable news."^[20] Associated Press columnist David Bauder said she's "[Keith] Olbermann's political soul mate" and the Olbermann-Maddow shows are a "liberal two-hour block."^[36]

Public image and publicity[link]

Maddow has been profiled in People,^[37] the Guardian,^[38] and the New York Observer,^[39] has appeared on “The View” and “Charlie Rose”^[40]

Keith Olbermann played a pivotal role in Maddow's hiring at MSNBC. Olbermann was able to pressure Phil Griffin to give Maddow Dan Abram's slot. A fan of Maddow's, Olbermann was able to use his influence, which had become greater as his ratings rose.^[41]

A 2011 Hollywood Reporter profile of Maddow said that she was able to deliver news "with agenda, but not hysteria.”^[42] A Newsweek profile noted that “At her best, Maddow debates ideological opponents with civility and persistence...But for all her eloquence, she can get so wound up ripping Republicans that she sounds like another smug cable partisan.". Baltimore Sun critic David Zurawik has accused Maddow of acting like 'a lockstep party member.'”^[43]

A Time profile called her a “whip-smart, button-cute leftie.” It said that she radiates an essential decency and suggested that her career rise might signify that “nice is the new nasty.”^[44]

Political views[link]

Distinguishing herself from others on the left, Maddow said she's a "national security liberal" and in a different interview that she's not "a partisan."^[45][46] The New York Times called her a "defense policy wonk" who is writing a book on the role of the military in postwar American politics.^[35][45] (The book, titled Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, was published in 2012.) During the 2008 presidential election, Maddow did not formally support any candidate. Concerning Barack Obama's candidacy, Maddow said during the primaries, "I have never and still don't think of myself as an Obama supporter, either professionally or actually."^[47]

In March 2010, Republican Scott Brown, the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts, speculated that Maddow was going to run against him for his seat in 2012. He used this premise for a fundraising email that read "...The Massachusetts political machine is looking for someone to run against me. And you're not going to believe who they are supposedly trying to recruit — liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow." Maddow said Brown's speculation was false. On her March 23, 2010, TV program, Maddow said, "I have the best job in the world. I am not running for office. Scott Brown didn't ask me if I was running or planning to run for office, before he wrote a fundraising letter with my name. No, it's completely made up by him." Despite her comments, the next day Brown continued along the same line, telling a Boston radio station, "Bring her on." To help put an end to the matter, Maddow ran a full-page advertisement in the Boston Globe confirming she was not running, and separately demanded Brown's apology. She added that despite repeated invitations over the months, Brown had refused to appear on her TV program.^{[48][49][50][51]}

Personal life[link]

Maddow lives in Manhattan and western Massachusetts with her partner, artist Susan Mikula.^[52][53] The couple met in 1999, when Mikula hired Maddow to do yard work at her home. Maddow was working on her doctoral dissertation at the time.^[52] Their first date was at a National Rifle Association "Ladies' Day on the Range" event.^[54] Although Massachusetts and New York recognize same-sex marriage, as of 2009 Maddow and Mikula had no plans to marry.^[13]

Honors and awards[link]

• Emmy Award in the Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis category for "The Rachel Maddow Show" episode "Good Morning Landlocked Central Asia!"
• Maddow was named in Out magazine's "Out 100" list of the "gay men and women who moved culture" in 2008.^[55]
• Maddow was voted "Lesbian/Bi Woman of the Year (American)" in AfterEllen's 2008 Visibility Awards.^[56]
• Maddow won a Gracie Award in 2009, presented by the American Women in Radio and Television.^[57]
• In 2009, Maddow was nominated for GLAAD's 20th Annual Media Awards for a segment of her MSNBC show, "Rick Warren, Change To Believe In?", in the Outstanding TV Journalism Segment category.^[58]
• On March 28, 2009, Maddow received a Proclamation of Honor from the California State Senate, presented in San Francisco by California State Senator Mark Leno.^[59]
• In April 2009, she was listed at number four in Out magazine's Annual Power 50 List.^[60]
• Maddow placed sixth in the "2009 AfterEllen.com Hot 100" list (May 11, 2009)^[61] and third in its "2009 Hot 100: Out Women" version.^[62]
• Maddow was included on a list of openly gay media professionals in The Advocate's "Forty under 40" issue of June/July 2009.^[63]
• In 1994, Maddow was an Honorable Mention in the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Prize in Ethics.^[64]
• In June 2009, Maddow's MSNBC show was the only cable news show nominated for a Television Critics Association award in the Outstanding Achievement in News and Information category.^[65]
• In March 2010, Maddow won at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in the category, Outstanding TV Journalism- Newsmagazine for her segment, "Uganda Be Kidding Me".^[66]
• Maddow was the 2010 commencement speaker and was given an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree at Smith College in Northampton, MA in May 2010.^[67]
• In July 2010, Maddow was presented with a Maggie Award for her ongoing reporting of healthcare reform, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and the anti-abortion movement.^[68]
• In August 2010, Maddow won the Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award, which was presented by The Interfaith Alliance.^[69] Past honorees included Larry King, Tom Brokaw, and the late Peter Jennings.^[69]
• In November 2011, she was included on the list of "Over-Rated Thinkers" by the editors of The New Republic.^[70]
• In February 2012, Maddow was presented the John Steinbeck Award by the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University.^[71]

Bibliography[link]

• Maddow, Rachel (2012). Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power. Crown. ISBN 978-0-307-46098-1. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rachel Maddow

• Rachel Maddow on Twitter
• Official website
• Profile and show at MSNBC
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Rachel Maddow on Charlie Rose
• Rachel Maddow at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Rachel Maddow in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein, October 2011
Born	(1970-05-08) May 8, 1970 (age 42) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation	Author, activist
Subjects	Alter-globalization, anti-war
Spouse(s)	Avi Lewis
naomiklein.org

Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.^[1]

Family[link]

Klein was born in Montreal, Quebec, and brought up in a Jewish family with a history of peace activism. Her parents had moved to Montreal from the U.S. in 1967 as war resisters to the Vietnam War.^[2] Her mother, documentary film-maker Bonnie Sherr Klein, is best known for her anti-pornography film Not a Love Story.^[3] Her father, Michael Klein, is a physician and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her brother, Seth Klein, is director of the British Columbia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Her paternal grandparents were communists who began to turn against the Soviet Union after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and had abandoned communism by 1956. In 1942 her grandfather Phil Klein, an animator at Disney, was fired after the Disney animators' strike,^[4] and went to work at a shipyard instead. Klein's father grew up surrounded by ideas of social justice and racial equality, but found it "difficult and frightening to be the child of Communists", a so-called red diaper baby.^[5]

Klein's husband, Avi Lewis, works as a TV journalist and documentary filmmaker. His parents are the writer and activist Michele Landsberg and politician and diplomat Stephen Lewis, son of David Lewis, one of the founders of the Canadian New Democratic Party, son in turn of Moishe Lewis, born Losz, a Jewish labour activist of "the Bund" who left Central Europe for Canada in 1921.^[6] Klein announced on March 5, 2012 that the couple is expecting their first child in June.^[7]

Early life[link]

Klein spent much of her teenage years in shopping malls, obsessed with designer labels.^[8] As a child and teenager, she found it "very oppressive to have a very public feminist mother" and she rejected politics, instead embracing "full-on consumerism."

She has attributed her change in worldview to two events. One was when she was 17 and preparing for the University of Toronto, her mother had a stroke and became severely disabled.^[9] Naomi, her father and brother took care of Bonnie through the period in hospital and at home, making educational sacrifices to do so.^[9] That year off prevented her "from being such a brat."^[8] The next year, after beginning her studies at the University of Toronto, the second event occurred: the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre of female engineering students, which proved to be a wake-up call to feminism.^[10]

Klein's writing career started with contributions to The Varsity, a student newspaper, where she served as editor-in-chief. After her third year at the University of Toronto, she dropped out of university to take a job at the Toronto Globe and Mail, followed by an editorship at This Magazine. In 1995, she returned to the University of Toronto with the intention of finishing her degree^[5] but left the university for a journalism internship before acquiring the final credits required to complete her degree.^[11]

Major works[link]

[edit] No Logo

In 2000, Klein published the book No Logo, which for many became a manifesto of the anti-corporate globalization movement. In it, she attacks brand-oriented consumer culture and the operations of large corporations. She also accuses several such corporations of unethically exploiting workers in the world's poorest countries in pursuit of greater profits. In this book, Klein criticized Nike so severely that Nike published a point-by-point response.^[12] No Logo became an international bestseller, selling over one million copies in over 28 languages.^[13]

[edit] Fences and Windows

In 2002 Klein published Fences and Windows, a collection of her articles and speeches written on behalf of the anti-globalization movement (all proceeds from the book go to benefit activist organizations through The Fences and Windows Fund).

[edit] The Take

In 2004, Klein and her husband, Avi Lewis, released a documentary film called The Take about factory workers in Argentina who took over a closed plant and resumed production, operating as a collective. The first African screening was in the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the South African city of Durban, where the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement began.^[14]

At least one article in Z Communications criticized The Take for its portrayal of the Argentine General and politician Juan Domingo Perón, which they felt portrayed him as a social democrat.^[15]

[edit] The Shock Doctrine

Klein's third book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, was published on September 4, 2007, becoming an international and New York Times bestseller^[13] translated into 28 languages.^[16] The book argues that the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics have risen to prominence in countries such as Chile under Pinochet, Russia under Yeltsin, and the United States (for example, the privatization of the New Orleans Public Schools after Hurricane Katrina). The book also argues that policy initiatives (for instance, the privatization of Iraq's economy under the Coalition Provisional Authority) were rushed through while the citizens of these countries were in shock from disasters, upheavals, or invasion.

Central to the book's thesis is the contention that those who wish to implement unpopular free market policies now routinely do so by taking advantage of certain features of the aftermath of major disasters, be they economic, political, military or natural in nature. The suggestion is that when a society experiences a major 'shock' there is a widespread desire for a rapid and decisive response to correct the situation; this desire for bold and immediate action provides an opportunity for unscrupulous actors to implement policies which go far beyond a legitimate response to disaster. The book suggests that when the rush to act means the specifics of a response will go unscrutinized, that is the moment when unpopular and unrelated policies will intentionally be rushed into effect. The book appears to claim that these shocks are in some cases, such as the Falklands War, intentionally encouraged or even manufactured.

Klein identifies the "shock doctrine", elaborating on Joseph Schumpeter, as the latest in capitalism's phases of "creative destruction".^[17]

The Shock Doctrine was adapted into a short film of the same name, released onto YouTube. The film was directed by Jonás Cuarón, produced and co-written by his father Alfonso Cuarón. The video has been viewed over one million times.^[13]

The publication of The Shock Doctrine increased Klein's prominence, with the New Yorker judging her "the most visible and influential figure on the American left—what Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky were thirty years ago." On February 24, 2009, the book was awarded the inaugural Warwick Prize for Writing from the University of Warwick in England. The prize carried a cash award of £50,000.

Iraq War criticism[link]

Klein has written on various current issues, such as the Iraq War. In a September 2004 article for Harper's Magazine,^[18] she argues that, contrary to popular belief, the Bush administration did have a clear plan for post-invasion Iraq, which was to build a completely unconstrained free market economy. She describes plans to allow foreigners to extract wealth from Iraq, and the methods used to achieve those goals.^[19][20] The 2008 film War, Inc. was partially inspired by her article, Baghdad Year Zero.^[21]

Klein's August 2004 "Bring Najaf to New York", published in The Nation, argued that Muqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army "represents the overwhelmingly mainstream sentiment in Iraq."^[22] She went on to say "Yes, if elected Sadr would try to turn Iraq into a theocracy like Iran, but for now his demands are for direct elections and an end to foreign occupation".^[22] Marc Cooper, a former Nation columnist, attacked the assertion that Al Sadr represented mainstream Iraqi sentiment and that American forces had brought the fight to the holy city of Najaf.^[23] Cooper wrote that "Klein should know better. All enemies of the U.S. occupation she opposes are not her friends. Or ours. Or those of the Iraqi people. I don’t think that Mullah Al Sadr, in any case, is much desirous of support issuing from secular Jewish feminist-socialists."^[23]

Criticism of Israeli policies[link]

In March 2008, Klein was the keynote speaker at the first national conference of the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians. In January 2009, during the Gaza War, Klein supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, arguing that "the best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa."^[24]

In summer 2009, on the occasion of the publication of the Hebrew translation of her book The Shock Doctrine, Klein visited Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, combining the promotion of her book and the BDS campaign. In an interview to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz she emphasized that it is important to her "not to boycott Israelis but rather to boycott the normalization of Israel and the conflict."^[25] In a speech in Ramallah on 27 June, she apologized to the Palestinians for not joining the BDS campaign earlier.^[26] Her remarks, particularly that "[Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free-card" were characterized by an op-ed columnist in the Jerusalem Post as "violent" and "unethical", and as the "most perverse of aspersions on Jews, an age-old stereotype of Jews as intrinsically evil and malicious."^[27]

Klein was also a spokesperson for the protest against the spotlight on Tel Aviv at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, a spotlight that Klein said was a very selective and misleading portrait of Israel.^[28]

Other activities[link]

Klein contributes to The Nation, In These Times, The Globe and Mail, This Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and The Guardian.

She once lectured as a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics as an award-winning journalist, writer on the anti-globalisation movement.^[29]

She ranked 11th in an internet poll of the top global intellectuals of 2005, a list of the world's top 100 public intellectuals compiled by the Prospect magazine in conjunction with Foreign Policy magazine.^[30]

She was involved in a protest condemning police action during the G20 summit in Toronto, ON. She spoke to a rally seeking the release of protesters in front of police headquarters on June 28, 2010.^[31]

In May 2011, Klein received an honourary degree from Saint Thomas University.

On October 6, 2011, she visited Occupy Wall Street and gave a speech declaring the protest movement "the most important thing in the world". ^[32]

On November 10, 2011, she participated in a panel discussion about the future of Occupy Wall Street with four other panelists, including Michael Moore and William Greider, in which she stressed the crucial nature of the evolving movement.^[33]

List of works[link]

Books and contributed chapters[link]

• 2000. No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. ISBN 0-312-42143-5
• 2002. Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate. ISBN 0-312-30799-3
• 2003. Contributor Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• 2007. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. ISBN 0-8050-7983-1 - winner of the Warwick Prize for Writing (2009)
• 2009. Contributor Going Rouge: Sarah Palin An American Nightmare ISBN 0-06-193989-7^[34]

Articles[link]

• 2011. Capitalism vs. the Climate; What the right gets - and the left doesn't - about the revolutionary power of climate change. November 9, 2011, The Nation

Filmography[link]

• The Corporation (interview)
• The Take
• The Shock Doctrine

References[link]

1. ^ Nineham, Chris (October 2007). "The Shock Doctrine". Socialist Review. http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10110. Retrieved April 25, 2011. 
2. ^ "Video: Naomi Klein at last night's town hall". DepartmentOfCulture.ca. September 4, 2008. http://departmentofculture.ca/video-naomi-klein-at-last-nights-town-hall/. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
3. ^ "Biography of Bonnie Sherr Klein (*1941): Filmmaker, Author, Disability Rights Activist". Library and Archives Canada. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/002026-704-e.html. 
4. ^ Sito, Tom (July 19, 2005). "The Disney Strike of 1941: How It Changed Animation & Comics". Animation World Magazine. http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Special+Features&category2=&article_no=2562&page=1. Retrieved March 25, 2009. 
5. ^ ^{a b} MacFarquhar, Larissa (December 8, 2008). "Outside Agitator: Naomi Klein and the New Left". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/08/081208fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=all. 
6. ^ Lewis, Avi. "Extended story by Avi Lewis: Who do you think you are?". CBC Television. http://www.cbc.ca/whodoyouthinkyouare/stories/ext_avi.php. 
7. ^ "Naomi Klein". Facebook. March 5, 2012. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naomi-Klein/12400234918. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Viner, Katharine (September 23, 2000). "Hand-To-Brand-Combat: A Profile Of Naomi Klein". The Guardian. http://www.commondreams.org/views/092300-103.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
9. ^ ^{a b} Klein, Bonnie Sherr (Spring 1993). "We are Who You are:Feminism and Disability". Abilities. Enablelink.org. http://www.enablelink.org/include/article.php?pid=&cid=&subid=&aid=673. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
10. ^ "Naomi Klein: The Montreal Massacre". Bigthink.com. http://www.bigthink.com/policy-politics/6340. Retrieved 2008-10-10. 
11. ^ Q&A Interview with Brian Lamb, on CSPAN, dated November 29, 2009, Klein Q&A interview and transcript
12. ^ "Nike's response to No Logo". Nike. 2000-03-08. Archived from the original on 2001-06-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20010618162615/http://nikebiz.com/labor/nologo_let.shtml. 
13. ^ ^{a b c} "Unconventional Wisdom Since 1865". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/naomi_klein. 
14. ^ Phillips-Fein, Kim (May 10, 2005). "Seattle to Baghdad". n+1. http://www.nplusonemag.com/klein.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
15. ^ Morduchowicz, Daniel (September 20, 2004). "The Take". Z Space. http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/7824. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
16. ^ "Author Spotlight: Naomi Klein". RandomHouse.ca. http://www.randomhouse.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=15909. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
17. ^ Cockburn, Alexander (September 22 / 23, 2007), On Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine", CounterPunch, http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09222007.html 
18. ^ Klein, Naomi (September 2004). "Baghdad year zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia". Harper's Magazine. The Harper's Magazine Foundation. http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 
19. ^ Klein, Naomi (2004-10-13). Broadcast Exclusive: James Baker’s Double Life in Iraq: The Carlyle Group Stands to Make Killing on Iraqi Debt. Interview with Amy Goodman. Democracy Now!. Pacifica Radio. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/13/144220. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
20. ^ Klein, Naomi (January 22, 2004). The Persuaders: Interview Naomi Klein. (Interview). PBS Frontline. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/klein.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
21. ^ Gilbey, Ryan (August 31, 2007). "I'm basically a brand (article about John Cusack's career)". London: The Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2159038,00.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
22. ^ ^{a b} Klein, Naomi (August 26, 2004). "Bring Najaf to New York". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040913/klein. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
23. ^ ^{a b} Cooper, Marc (August 27, 2004). "Najaf to New York? Better: New York to Najaf.". marccooper.typepad.com. http://marccooper.typepad.com/marccooper/2004/08/najaf_to_new_yo.html. Retrieved 2009-02-17. 
24. ^ Klein, Naomi (January 10, 2009). "Enough. It's time for a boycott". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/10/naomi-klein-boycott-israel. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
25. ^ Klein, Naomi (July 2, 2009). "Oppose the state, not the people". Ha'aretz. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097058.html. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
26. ^ Klein, Naomi (July 7, 2009). "Naomi Klein in Ramallah: I am ashamed that it took me this long". The Faster Times. http://thefastertimes.com/Palestine/2009/07/07/naomi-klein-in-ramallah-i-am-ashamed-that-it-took-me-this-long-to-endorse-the-call-to-boycott-israel…it-was-nothing-but-cowardice/. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
27. ^ Schimmel, Noam (July 18, 2009). "'The Jews' get-away-with-genocide-free-card'". Jerusalem Post. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443842069&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull. 
28. ^ Klein, Naomi (September 10, 2009). "We don't feel like celebrating with Israel this year.". Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/we-dont-feel-like-celebrating-with-israel-this-year/article1278582/. 
29. ^ "Visiting teaching fellows". London School of Economics and Political Science. http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/miliband/visitingTeachingFellows.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-09. 
30. ^ "Intellectuals—the results". Prospect Magazine. Prospect Publishing Limited. 26 July 2008. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2008/07/intellectualstheresults/. 
31. ^ "Video: Naomi Klein to police: "Don't play public relations, do your goddamned job!"". Rabble.ca and Youtube.com. July 28, 2010. http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/06/features/naomi-klein-police-dont-play-public-relations-do-your-goddam. Retrieved 2010-06-28. 
32. ^ Klein, Naomi (October 6, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now". The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/article/163844/occupy-wall-street-most-important-thing-world-now. Retrieved March 30, 2012. 
33. ^ "Michael Moore, Naomi Klein and Others on What's Next for OWS". The Nation. November 9, 2011. http://www.thenation.com/video/164494/watch-michael-moore-naomi-klein-and-others-owss-possibilities. Retrieved March 30, 2012. 
34. ^ "Official Book Website for Going Rouge". OR Books. http://orbooks.com/.