Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Yuck October 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Even though it was valuable for me to learn what is really going on, I read this book with a mixture of revulsion and horror. And recently, "New Scientist" (23 July 2008) carried an article stating that, for each year of a country's involvement with the IMF, the TB death rate increased by four per cent on average. This was not because countries with worsening TB attract more IMF attention since the TB rates had been falling, or at least steady, before receiving IMF "help".
 Complex, Compelling, Horrifying, an Important Book September 29, 2008
"The Shock Doctrine" is a thoroughly good read in which Naomi Klein sets out to illustrate the spread of the economic doctrine of the late economist Milton Friedman and of the Chicago School of Economics; to illustrate the use of force (backed by U.S government in a number of cases) by right-wing governments and exploitation of natural disaster and conflict to push through unpopular economic reforms (based on Friedman's doctrine), and how such governments are putting big business first to line their own pockets and those of the corporate sector, leaving the public sector to deteriorate and their nation to grow poorer and poorer.
The book opens with an introduction of Milton Friedman's view of disaster as an opportunity for the practice of free-market economics; how he longed for the chance to test out his theories and how he finally got the chance. Klein discusses research into the effects of psychological shock and then moves onto how this research was then used and abused by the CIA for interrogation purposes. We are then cited a number of case studies in which right-wing governments have used repressive measures to pursue with their economic policies, and the concept of 'planned misery' is developed.
It is when Klein turns onto the subject of shock therapy in the U.S., of the homeland security industry and U.S. management of Iraq vis-a-vis shock therapy becomes slightly inconsistent, something she appears to seek a remedy for, in the case of the latter, with the concept of "pre-emptive shock". This inconsistency itself, however, isn't particularly important because the message is clear enough: with all the back-scratching and dirty dealing going on under Bush, the corporate world has never had it so good.
The penultimate chapter looks at how conflict has benefited the Israeli economy and stock markets, and the final chapter is Klein's hope-inspiring conclusion is that capitalism is finally coming to its end as left-wing governments turn their backs on the U.S and on free-market economics ideas and practices, etc.
"The Shock Doctrine" is a complex book, but Klein's style of writing is ever-refreshing and there's not a dull word in the text, one of the great things about her work. She brilliantly portrays why right-wing big government and big business can be so dangerous. It's a relief to know both have a thorn in its side like Naomi Klein. This is an important book, one not to be missed. I'd definitely recommend it.
 Scandal: Sometimes people profit when bad things happen. Film at eleven! September 21, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
First, disclosure: I enjoyed No Logo a great deal, it informed a lot of the way I think about corporations and changed the way I bought clothes. I read the Guardian when I get a chance, and am addicted to the Daily Show. So please don't think that my review is based on having a radically different philosophy to Ms Klein.
I didn't like this book. The main thrust of the book is that there are theorists who believe that you can only change things when a big shock to the system happens; an earthquake, 9/11, Katrina, etc. In the aftermath the populace are too shocked and confused to notice free marketers running in to privatize public assets like security or schools. Now in individual cases, I agree this is something to keep an eye on, particularly with companys like Blackwater. But where the author loses me is in tying this together with a history of torture methods of the CIA around electroshock. I didn't really see the relevance of the comparison and it's a thread that weaves its way through the book. There's also a hint of the paranoia seen in conspiracy theorists, throughout, and here is my fundamental problem with that: most people are not evil. They go about their business, try to be good people, and that's that. If a corporation sees an opportunity to make money it's hardly surprising they will do, it doesn't always need to be interepreted as part of an agenda. Sometimes it's just business.
Personally I found the entire topic much less relevant to me than No Logo; what am I supposed to do about the issues explored here other than gripe about them to other lefties to show off how well read I am? At 550 pages this could also have done with being a lot more concise. Overall I'm disappointed that I didn't like this more.
The second colonial pillage and the essence of dehumanization August 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Naomi Klein unveils in this hard-hitting book (naming names) extremely clearly the economic utopia and the shameful realities resulting from the neo-liberal policies of the Chicago School of Economics, also called `The Washington Consensus'.
What
Its defenders claim that the free market is a perfect scientific system, in which individuals acting on their own self-interested desire, create the maximum benefit for all.
But, as no country or city wanted to implement deliberately their policies, its powerful fundamentalist defenders, together with their long arm, the IMF, used and created shocks (wars, military coups, political upheavals, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, epidemics, energy and resource shortages) to force a second shock of radical social and economic engineering on traumatized populations.
Where
Naomi Klein analyzes brilliantly a long list of victims of the shock doctrine of which the most important are: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Iraq, Russia, Indonesia, Poland, South-Africa, former Yugoslavia and its republics, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Thailand, New Or leans and the US as a whole.
How
This radical economic cure consisted intentionally in eliminating the public sphere, in giving total freedom to private interests and in providing only skeletal social spending. Sometimes with the help of the IMF as their obedient mediator, State and corporate wealth was cut into pieces and sold of for a trifle in debased currencies to private, mostly foreign, interests: airlines, phone and water systems, oilfields, all kind of corporations and factories (sometimes direct competitors), mineral deposits or farmlands.
Private bonanza, public hell
Those policies created a formidable bonanza for transnational corporations, oligarchs and investment banks.
For the majority of the population, the results were less than bleak, rather hellish:
Not democracy, but dictatorship
Not peace, but war, tortures or simply assassinations (the essence of dehumanizing)
Not freedom for the populations, but for the corporations
Not hiring, but mass unemployment (putting people in a starvation position)
Not civil liberties, but aggressive surveillance
Not clean commerce, but rampant corruption
Not broadly based wealth, but turning 25 to 60 % of the population into a permanent underclass
Not clean air and water, but environmental degradation
US
In the US, the core of the governmental tasks (the military, the police, fire departments, power, covert intelligence, disease control, public schools) was subcontracted to private interests.
Future
But the tide is turning against disaster capitalism. The IMF is nearly out of business.
Democratic socialism, always regarded by those in power as a greater threat than totalitarian communism, is clearly on the march, especially in South-America.
Naomi Klein's formidable book is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.
What's really going on August 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Read and weep - Klein exposes the real power behind the world throne and the shoddy, extraordinary greed of the few who are happy to make money from the world's poor. Oh actually - BY making the rest of the world poor. The compelling story of how Milton Friedman's Chicago Boys realised that catastrophe gave them a vital window of opportunity in which to snatch and grab, in countries worldwide, starting with some "experiments" in Latin America. It's no news to economists, but it is to the rest of us - governments in "transition", such as Poland under Solidarity, were forced to seek help from the World Bank and IMF, only to be told that essential loans came with unbearable hardship and economic ruin for their citizens. Forced privatisations of state companies, all price controls lifted, so that essentials like bread and milk became unaffordable, and massive layoffs/unemployment. But the deal was always: accept our terms, or forget about securing loans - which these countries (like S.Africa, like Russia) needed to deal with the inherited debts of previous dictatorships. A rock and a hard place indeed. And guess who was controlling the IMF? And making all the money from buying up ex-state companies, only to sell them on for huge profit, or close them down so there'd be no competition for the American companies coming in? And that's before Klein even gets to discussing Iraq. Essential reading. Especially in the Big Brother age, when politicians would like us all to be looking the other way.
|
