The Shock Doctrine - Firedoglake Book Salon Hosts Naomi Klein
By Siun Saturday Nov 17, 2007 3:48pm
Today at 5 PM Eastern/2PM Pacific, Firedoglake will host a live discussion with Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine -- “the gripping story of how America’s ‘free market’ policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.” Jane Hamsher will host the conversation.
Everyone is invited to the conversation – bring your questions and thoughts and join in.
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War crimes?
Thank you so much for being here. I found your book fascinating, disturbing and very helpful.
Laura @ 2:
To make sure that there is no confusion, Naomi Klein is at Firedoglake, not C&L.
Obviously a must read. Leave it to a money man, yikes!
Have heard about this on a few sites and Randi Rhodes' show. I'll be taking a ride to Borders later and will pick up a copy.
I hope everyone orders Naomi's book. She's been speaking truth to power for a long time
I just finished it yesterday. A good informative book, if one that is a bit depressing; then again, that's reality.
Further recommended reading on this subject:
Disaster Capitalism
Paul B. Farrell of MarketWatch wrote a column inspired by Naomi's book.
FDL doesn't work for me any more. Hit the link, I get from two days before. Hit the calender, I am lucky to get today's link off their calender for the daily archive. I have given up.
Great book.
However, the gaping hole in Kleins book is this...
throughout the book she painstakingly details how the elites of the society have engineered every human-caused shock that has been applied to various countries.
but she makes the exception to her rule when she excludes from possibility any premeditation on the part of the execution of 9-11, and who really did it. Those who benefited from 9-11, versus 19 lackluster recruits and a kidney-machine dependent cleric in a cave 2000+ miles away.
Its intellectual dishonesty.
the contents of the video may be correct but I find it's style and soundtrack to be a little to much like that of propaganda. I really enjoy musical soundtracks in works of fiction but notice that the sound is there to influence our emotions. In documentaries I would prefer that the facts be what is stressed, not the almost subliminal throb of the soundtrack, or the repeated video of the poor mental patient being shocked. This dumbing down of factual presentations only serves to remind me of how far our culture has fallen. The information that Friedman and his followers were willing to manipulate society in subversive ways to achieve their goals is frightening enough without the audio enhancements.
Pulitzer prize nominee by far. Just incredible.
I feel so fortunate to have the chance to listen to Klein face to face, without the doom n' gloom background music. She'll be on my campus in Ontario on Monday.
Truth Be Told
I cannot even begin to have a competent dicourse on politics in the USA, without first having a real and conclusive investigation around 911;
OK then how about just Building 7?
Not a loon, just a well educated profesisonal in this area... both demolitions and steel structures.
enough said on that point...
Truth Be Told @ 9:
You are putting words into her mouth. Naomi Klein never said that the elites of society have engineered every human-caused shock. That's absurd. The thesis of her book is that disasters, manufactured or natural, are exploited by disaster profiteers through 'economic shock therapy.' Read the book, please.
As for who is responsible for 9-11, Naomi says nothing of it. To do so would be completely off topic. If you're going to accuse someone of misleading their readers about 9-11, find an author who actually writes about it first.
Naomi Klein is the Noam Chomsky of this generation
Are there elites that have prospered around the "manufactured" disaster of 911... uncollected put options, enhanced police state, Eric Prince ring a bell?
Sorry haven't read the book yet.
It's called competition.
Phantom @ 15:
She does address 9-11, on pages 11-12 where she says: " When the Sept 11 attacks hit, the White House was packed with Friedman's disciples, including his close friend Donald Rumsfeld. The Bush team seized the moment of collective vertigo with chilling speed. - not as some have claimed, because the administration deviously plotted the crisis..."
wilderness wino @ 17:
Prospering from this whole Bush fiasco? Oh no not at all!
Teddy Phuf @ 16:
I agree. Not only is she an outstanding intellectual, but she is also a fervent supporter of workers cooperatives (much like Chomsky is). Watch her documentary, "The Take." Great stuff.
Future Shock (1970) pretty much predicted it.
Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change will overwhelm people, the accelerated rate of technological and social change will leave them disconnected, suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" – future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems were symptoms of the future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock, he also coined the term "information overload".
Truth Be Told @ 19:
I repeat: she focuses her entire book on how the aftermath of disasters are exploited, NOT on who is responsible for the disasters. I even saw an interview with Naomi on YouTube (I forget which vid) where she explicitly makes this point to sidestep a question about the cause of 9-11.
Regarding the Naomi quote that you cite, I see it as Naomi responding to people who use the Bush administration's response to 9-11 as proof that Bush was behind it. Naomi Klein simply provides a more convincing explanation of the 9-11 response.
If you care to know my own opinion about it, there are not enough engineers who support this paricular conspiracy theory, and the evidence is unconvincing. Even if it turned out to be true, then why should that be our primary concern? Believe it or not, there IS solid evidence that the Bush administration instigated illegal WARS! Why is that less important to you?
I long for the day that civics in our schools taught us all about our individual sovereignty; and as soveriegn beings together we made up a sovereign state; one (at least through all of my school years... if you discount DC and Puerta Rico) of fifty states that make up the US...
Now... there is hardly a distinction of sovereignty between countries where the Mutinational Coporations and Military Industrial Complex (economic power engines of the "elite")are concerned.
I want my Human and Constitutional rights back!
L.A. Confidential @ 22:
It isn't that people are overwhelmed by advanced technology; it's that people are using technology to overwhelm other people and in cases of natural disaster, poorer peoples are overwhelmed and exploited by those with a technological advantage.
I look forward to reading the book...
As i understand the premise, culpability for 9/11 is a moot point. The reaction to the crises is what matters. When we consider that not only was the executive branch stocked with followers of Friedman but that they had openly hoped for such an event, in print, it becomes clear that they were not in shock. 9/11 was the opportunity of a lifetime.
Congratulations, Amerika...empire by way of the black arts. This country is almost enough to make me wish that the fundies were right, bring on the rapture...or at least global warming. Mother Nature may be the only thing capable of stopping our evil super-villains.
Phantom @ 23:
The fact that you give a "who cares about what really happened on 9-11" response shows how little you understand what the primary concern should be. You want to let the criminals get away with THE crime that started it all. That's like trying a mass murderer for a speeding ticket he got while trying to get away.
9-11 was the primary reason for everything this Admin has done. Take away their their bedrock "go-to" argument for everything and you will end the war, end the growing police state, end other state-sponsored false flags.
I am sure the survivors of 9-11 appreciate you minimizing their loss the way you just did.
Truth Be Told @ 27:
I think the point is that you missed the point.
The clips certainly misrepresents the free market more than anything I've ever seen. Ask yourself, how can there be a free market with government interference? ..... Thought so.
What this clips is talking entails cronyism and corporatism, it is in no way talking about a laissez-faire economy.
Matt @ 29:
Butchered that one...
What this clip entails, is cronyism and corporatism, it is in no way talking about a laissez-faire economy.
Phantom @ 21:
I second that, The Take is a very inspirational film - EVERYONE here should have seen it by now. If not, go out and rent it.
I became familiar with Naomi Klein from the canadian movie "the corporation". I'm sure many of you have seen this, but if you have not, it's a great movie and the extra interviews disc is interesting.
www.thecorporation.com
Massive thanks to Naomi Kline. Along with Naomi Wolf, they are leading the information dissemination revolution.
I always wondered if the Christmas tsunami was technological in origin. At least the hotel and Condominium industry made the best use of all that waterfront property.
Oh wait, isn't that what's happening in New Orleans too?
there is no need for conspiracy theories, when actions and intents, losses and gains, are plainly visible.
we do wonder how things came to be, and how so few with so much power, make decisions that seem to benefit the so little at the expense of so many, with obvious knowledge of their effects.
sounds like a must have book. I'll check it out.
Capitalism is responsible for many of the worlds ills. I don't know what could replace it, but we desperately need a different way to live. The rich get richer, the rest of us get ground down just a little more every day and we're told that's the way the world is. It's not right. Communism would be a good system if it were possible to make it work, but it's not, because human nature demands that some people will grab power for themselves at the expense of their fellows. "All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others". I fear that corporate rule is going to lead to the enslavement of us all. Except for the rich of course, they'll do fine. The rest of us though, will be slaving 14 hours a day for a cup of gruel and hoping to avoid the lash. Our politicians are useless excuses for human beings, sucking at the teats like corporate lackeys. Any politicians who does try to speak out about it is branded by our corporate media as "crazy". Hello, Dennis Kucinich. They marginalize them and make them disappear.
Naomi Klein talks about her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Speaking at a benefit event for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a social justice research institute.
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Part 1 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka3Pb_StJn4
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Part 2 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du3mpRkaz8g
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Part 3 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og2gYUVURAI
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Part 4 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRvuGLM_Pe4
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Part 5 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7FcoU0LLUU
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - Part 6 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG_xRZW32X0
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