Naomi Klein has written an essential book that examines the ideological origins, and the methods of implementation, of the ideas which have been central to the global economic transformation of the last 40 years, which is often associated with terms such as "globalization," "free trade," and "unfettered free market capitalism." It is an immense and complex subject, and whose eyes do not begin to glaze over when the subject of GATT, or WTO talks is raised, but Klein has done a most impressive job of offering the reader an erudite and lucid exposition of this transformation. She has meticulously researched the subject, and has coupled that with interviews of some key actors in the transformational events. The book is accompanied by 75 pages of footnotes, a few of which I verified for accuracy.
Klein starts her work in an unlikely place: the basement of the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. It was there in the 1950's that Dr. Ewen Cameron, an American who was one time was president of the American Psychiatric Association, conducted experiments which were eventually funded by the CIA, on mentally-ill, and not so mentally-ill patients. Klein's interview with one of the survivors of Cameron's experiments was truly horrifying. Purportedly the CIA was funding such experiments "for a good cause," that is, to help captured American soldiers survive "brainwashing," which were conducted during the Korean War. In actuality, the CIA was to adopt many of the techniques that Cameron pioneered in its efforts to maintain "friendly" regimes throughout what was once called the Third World. The pictures of prisoners at Gitmo, with ear-mufflers and thick gloves, all in an effort to reduce sensory stimulus, are a direct result of Cameron's work. Electroshock therapy was also a central Cameron technique, and Klein uses an incisive epigraph from Ernest Hemingway, shortly before his suicide: "Well, what is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient." Yes, the critical point is that none of this worked, despite all the pain inflicted.
The central theme of the book is about what Klein calls "the other doctor shock." She is referring to Milton Friedman, and the school of economic thought known as the Chicago school (since Friedman taught at the University of Chicago), with its three part formula of: deregulation, privatization and cutbacks. He has been one of the stellar and most successful proponents of the now all too widely accepted "government is bad; free markets are the best of all possible worlds" thesis. And he doesn't believe in gradual transformation; it must be traumatic in order to overcome "political" obstacles, which is shorthand for the will of the vast majority of the people, who will be harmed by his policies. Klein does not particularly make this point, but I kept thinking, is not what she is describing the flip side of Communism? A rigid ideology, promoted by devoted and unquestioning acolytes who deem deviation from the "party line" heresy, requiring a revolution to obtain its objectives, and which involves much short-term immediate pain coupled with a promise of a better life in the hazy future.
Klein devotes chapter after chapter in a veritable "tour-de-force" of the implementation of the Chicago school's economic policies. Each chapter is a brilliant summation of the transformational events in a number of countries throughout the world. Friedman's first chance to implement his "clean slate" policies was Chile, when the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, and imposed General Pinochet's reign of terror on the country in 1973. For the Chicago school, the implementation of its policies must be made through non-democratic means, and usually accompanied by violence; a point Klein makes again and again. As Thomas Frank says in his , it is the French revolution in reverse, with economic wealth becoming concentrated, the few reaping vast rewards, the vast majority losing. That objective is not accomplished democratically. Klein goes on to detail the implementation of these polices in the other countries of what she calls the "southern cone," that is, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia. She again selects a wonderful epigraph by Eduardo Galeano: "People were in prison so that prices could be free."
In the `80's, a partial implementation of Friedman's policies occurred in both the United States and Britain, under Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher's policies were so unpopular with the electorate that she was sure to lose the election, but the "foreign adventure," the last gasp of empire jingoism, the Falklands War bailed her out. The author says that next step in the global transformation occurred with: "the colonization of the World Bank and the IMF by the Chicago School was a largely unspoken process, but it became official in 1989 when John Williamson unveiled what he called `the Washington Consensus'". The policies were thereby exported to Poland, Russia, and South Africa, each receiving its own chapter. The betrayal of the stated goals of the African National Congress, and the acceptance of the previous debt by the black-majority government, was particularly heart-breaking. The standard technique is to claim that the economic policies are not political, but technically and scientifically objective. Natural disasters, such as Katrina in New Orleans, and the tsunami in Sri Lanka, are likewise viewed as `opportunities' to "shock" the populace into accepting Chicago School doctrines, such as school privatization and fancy beach resorts. Klein also covers the economic "homeland security bubble" in the States, and does a brilliant job describing how these same policies were implemented in Iraq, a country with intermittent electric and water supplies, but a 15% flat tax rate was implemented, and constitutional changes were made so that it would be hard to reverse the "free market" policies, including selling off their oil reserves. The last chapter is devoted to the increasing resistance developing to such policies. Her book was completed prior to the economic melt-down in the United States in 2008, so, no doubt, it is greater now, but the political implementation of that discontent is still held in abeyance.
Klein's book has garnered numerous 1-star reviews; I've read them all, and could find very little of merit. Mainly they were the standard attacks from true-believer acolytes of the "magic" of the markets, despite the evidence, in particular of the last two years. Klein has written a remarkable, lucid book on why we are in the fix we are: Definitely 6-stars.
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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism [Abridged, Audiobook, CD]
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- Manufacturer : Macmillan Audio
- Date First Available : December 31, 2015
- Label : Macmillan Audio
- ASIN : 0832015679
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Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2010
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2010
NOTE: this review only covers Part 1 - Part 5
In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein surveys the rise of and subsequent use of the "shock doctrine" as a method of instilling neoliberal policies into the governments of various countries from Chile to Russia. She traces the birth of this doctrine, its relation to shock therapy, and the way countless economics, dictators, and other officials have attempted to craft a new world order that never went according to plan. With a definite bias, Naomi Klein makes no apologies for her views, yet as radical as some might interpret her to be, she presents a compelling view of this political and economic philosophy that certainly resonates with current events, particularly the earthquake that devastated Haiti earlier this year.
If there is one figure at the heart of Klein's narrative of neoliberal ideas it is Milton Friedman, the figurehead of neoliberalism, a man who counseled various foreign leaders in their attempt to implement the shock doctrine. The primary aim of the shock doctrine is to "shock" the economy of the country by drastically changing key policies that align with the neoliberal agenda. Most often, these times of drastic imbalance follow an uprising, coup, war, or the like. In this state, the citizens are already feeling a sense of distress and therefore, any additional shocks to the economy should not be a major issue. So, what Klein is attempting to do is to show that capitalism is not born of freedom and that "unfettered free markets go hand in hand with democracy" (pg. 22), but instead to challenge that "official story of capitalism" by demonstrating that capitalism, "has consistently been midwife by the most brutal forms of coercion, inflicted on the collective body politic as well as on the countless individual bodies" (pg. 23). Whether or not one subscribes to the beliefs of Naomi Klein, she does propose a very convincing look at the ways economics and political intertwine on a global scale.
Beginning with the links between shock therapy and the shock doctrine, Klein basically suggests they work the same, both are aimed at erasing a "memory" if you will, to create a clean slate. In shock therapy, a new set of behaviors may be imprinted, in the shock doctrine, a new set of economic policies is to be enacted, specifically neoliberal policies - free trade, deregulation, privatization, etc. The chapter on this relationship between the two actually works to shock the reader, to show how unscrupulous these doctors were in trying to treat their patients, and these same doctors were coincidentally enough government funded for the most part.
Without going into too much detail, subsequent chapter discussed the way the shock doctrine was executed (or attempted) in countries around the world; Klein uses Chile, Poland, South Africa, Russia, and China as prime examples. Each case follows a similar trajectory with a leader or faction in power that a certain cabal of insiders who wanted to shock the countries political and economic systems until they were replaced with neoliberal ideas, policies, and practices. In Chile, probably the best example from the book, a group of Chilean students taught at the University of Chicago (home to a neoliberal contingent of economists) formed a group called "The Chicago Boys," and these men infiltrated government positions and advised the military leaders who were planning a coup to force the president out of power. This scenario was repeated in several different incarnations around the world; Klein shows how governments from Communist to Democratic were all injected with a neoliberal agenda and how shocks in all the examined countries facilitated the changes that were to be necessarily to support a change. All cases, although very similar, are not always the same as the case of Russia and China illustrate. As these countries seemed to be transforming into democratic countries, underlying this adjustment was the shock doctrine, which was exercised differently than it was in the cases of the Latin American countries. Interestingly, as was the case in South Africa, and an example that stands out slightly, although Nelson Mandela and the ANC (African National Congress) came into power, their control over South Africa was more than show than an actuality. The men - white Afrikaners that had been in power for decades - continued to control the country's politics and economics behind the scene. But in all of these examples, the main point is that government coups, backhanding dealings, and other shady transactions were carried out to impose a new rule of law - that being neoliberalism.
Part Five and one of the most interesting and compelling sections deals with the shock doctrine in the United States. Here, Klein weaves together the conjunctures between all the Bush era players, Bush Jr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. and shows how each of these men had all the money in the world to gain from privatization efforts pre and post 9/11. The figures that Klein quotes Rumsfeld and Cheney making in their business ventures are mind boggling, and only reinforce the Bush administration's need to want to impose their own form of shock doctrine. What is most frightening about these figures is the example of Rumsfeld who was Chairman of Gilead Sciences, the company that patented Tamiflu. In other words, in any disaster where large quantities of Tamiflu were needed, and while people were suffering, Rumsfeld and the company would being doing financially well. Although this whole section was a little too "conspiracy theory" for my personal liking, Klein does you make one think more about the implications of those government officials being tied so closely to large for profit corporations.
Overall, The Shock Doctrine is well researched, clear, well written and most of all a very, very compelling read. If you agree with Klein's views, you will love this book, if you are more of the neoliberal and conservative variety, you will probably not enjoying reading it and will certainly disagree with Naomi Klein and what she has to say. Overall, I think no matter one's political or ideological leanings, The Shock Doctrine makes the point of how tied together we are in a globalized world. Globalization does not just affect politics, economics, culture, or society. It doesn't just affect material goods, but it influences the way we all live our lives in the twenty-first century. As many reviewers have stated already, this book is eye opening, yet it offers the hope that maybe if we all become a little more educated about what is going on in the world, we could do something more to change it to the way we see fit.
In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein surveys the rise of and subsequent use of the "shock doctrine" as a method of instilling neoliberal policies into the governments of various countries from Chile to Russia. She traces the birth of this doctrine, its relation to shock therapy, and the way countless economics, dictators, and other officials have attempted to craft a new world order that never went according to plan. With a definite bias, Naomi Klein makes no apologies for her views, yet as radical as some might interpret her to be, she presents a compelling view of this political and economic philosophy that certainly resonates with current events, particularly the earthquake that devastated Haiti earlier this year.
If there is one figure at the heart of Klein's narrative of neoliberal ideas it is Milton Friedman, the figurehead of neoliberalism, a man who counseled various foreign leaders in their attempt to implement the shock doctrine. The primary aim of the shock doctrine is to "shock" the economy of the country by drastically changing key policies that align with the neoliberal agenda. Most often, these times of drastic imbalance follow an uprising, coup, war, or the like. In this state, the citizens are already feeling a sense of distress and therefore, any additional shocks to the economy should not be a major issue. So, what Klein is attempting to do is to show that capitalism is not born of freedom and that "unfettered free markets go hand in hand with democracy" (pg. 22), but instead to challenge that "official story of capitalism" by demonstrating that capitalism, "has consistently been midwife by the most brutal forms of coercion, inflicted on the collective body politic as well as on the countless individual bodies" (pg. 23). Whether or not one subscribes to the beliefs of Naomi Klein, she does propose a very convincing look at the ways economics and political intertwine on a global scale.
Beginning with the links between shock therapy and the shock doctrine, Klein basically suggests they work the same, both are aimed at erasing a "memory" if you will, to create a clean slate. In shock therapy, a new set of behaviors may be imprinted, in the shock doctrine, a new set of economic policies is to be enacted, specifically neoliberal policies - free trade, deregulation, privatization, etc. The chapter on this relationship between the two actually works to shock the reader, to show how unscrupulous these doctors were in trying to treat their patients, and these same doctors were coincidentally enough government funded for the most part.
Without going into too much detail, subsequent chapter discussed the way the shock doctrine was executed (or attempted) in countries around the world; Klein uses Chile, Poland, South Africa, Russia, and China as prime examples. Each case follows a similar trajectory with a leader or faction in power that a certain cabal of insiders who wanted to shock the countries political and economic systems until they were replaced with neoliberal ideas, policies, and practices. In Chile, probably the best example from the book, a group of Chilean students taught at the University of Chicago (home to a neoliberal contingent of economists) formed a group called "The Chicago Boys," and these men infiltrated government positions and advised the military leaders who were planning a coup to force the president out of power. This scenario was repeated in several different incarnations around the world; Klein shows how governments from Communist to Democratic were all injected with a neoliberal agenda and how shocks in all the examined countries facilitated the changes that were to be necessarily to support a change. All cases, although very similar, are not always the same as the case of Russia and China illustrate. As these countries seemed to be transforming into democratic countries, underlying this adjustment was the shock doctrine, which was exercised differently than it was in the cases of the Latin American countries. Interestingly, as was the case in South Africa, and an example that stands out slightly, although Nelson Mandela and the ANC (African National Congress) came into power, their control over South Africa was more than show than an actuality. The men - white Afrikaners that had been in power for decades - continued to control the country's politics and economics behind the scene. But in all of these examples, the main point is that government coups, backhanding dealings, and other shady transactions were carried out to impose a new rule of law - that being neoliberalism.
Part Five and one of the most interesting and compelling sections deals with the shock doctrine in the United States. Here, Klein weaves together the conjunctures between all the Bush era players, Bush Jr., Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. and shows how each of these men had all the money in the world to gain from privatization efforts pre and post 9/11. The figures that Klein quotes Rumsfeld and Cheney making in their business ventures are mind boggling, and only reinforce the Bush administration's need to want to impose their own form of shock doctrine. What is most frightening about these figures is the example of Rumsfeld who was Chairman of Gilead Sciences, the company that patented Tamiflu. In other words, in any disaster where large quantities of Tamiflu were needed, and while people were suffering, Rumsfeld and the company would being doing financially well. Although this whole section was a little too "conspiracy theory" for my personal liking, Klein does you make one think more about the implications of those government officials being tied so closely to large for profit corporations.
Overall, The Shock Doctrine is well researched, clear, well written and most of all a very, very compelling read. If you agree with Klein's views, you will love this book, if you are more of the neoliberal and conservative variety, you will probably not enjoying reading it and will certainly disagree with Naomi Klein and what she has to say. Overall, I think no matter one's political or ideological leanings, The Shock Doctrine makes the point of how tied together we are in a globalized world. Globalization does not just affect politics, economics, culture, or society. It doesn't just affect material goods, but it influences the way we all live our lives in the twenty-first century. As many reviewers have stated already, this book is eye opening, yet it offers the hope that maybe if we all become a little more educated about what is going on in the world, we could do something more to change it to the way we see fit.
Top reviews from other countries
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye opener
Reviewed in Canada on April 17, 2024
Excellent work, the whole forest not just the tree !!
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Lucca Canizela De Camargo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb
Reviewed in Brazil on May 22, 2022
Very informative book!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential to understand global current economics.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2024
This is an incredibly well researched book. It is written in a language that any lay person can understand and enjoy. In short, this is a terrifying account of what brutal capitalism -as championed by the likes of Pinochet, Thatcher, Reagan, Putin, Xi and conservatives in general-, can inflict on society's as a whole. Essential reading.
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Brenda
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buen libro
Reviewed in Mexico on October 15, 2020
Llego en tiempo y forma y el libro está muy bueno
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Miklos Roth
5.0 out of 5 stars
the shock doctrine
Reviewed in Australia on July 29, 2022
What a brilliant book about the imperialist doctrine of the US! The whole world would be a match better an honest, peaceful place without the Americans! Maybe some catastrophic natural disasters in America would help humanity!