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Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, by Naomi Klein



Wow.

This was a major book, and one that I had to read and absorb slowly, and with much pondering.

Klein argues that Milton Friedman's economic theories, as embodied by the Chicago School of thought, have created a disturbing situation where governments led by true believers not only use psychologically traumatic incidents as opportunities to force economic change into a desired area, but will also create such incidents intentionally.

From Latin and South American government overthrows to 1950's shock treatments designed to "wipe clean" a persons personality, to torture at Abu Ghraib to the land grabs after the South Asian tsunami to everything in post-Katrina New Orleans, this book argued persuasively that many of these things didn't just happen, that they were purposeful and resulted in major wealth creation for interested parties.

The war profiteers...

Read this book. Really.

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