A review by inquiry_from_an_anti_library
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

Is This An Overview?

With disaster comes opportunity, a market opportunity.  Disasters are used to impose drastic changes on society, using shock therapy, rather than gradual changes.  Disasters are a shock to the system that enables policies to be accepted that would not have been acceptable otherwise.  To receive support or loans, sovereign states facing disaster are given conditions which generally include privatization, deregulation, and reduction in social spending. 

 

This has the effect of enacting policies that are favorable to markets, and gives access to foreign firms to buy resources and buyout domestic firms.  Resources and firms are sold relatively cheap, as the economy is facing disaster.  This is how disaster capitalism works.  Disaster makes sovereign states vulnerable to accept policies they would not otherwise accept, policies that are a form of colonialism.  The effect of shock therapy is to transfer public wealth to private individuals and groups, increase debt, and exacerbate inequality.  This situation is created by government and businesses working together.

 

The form of the disaster is not relevant.  Whether caused by nature or political conflict.  Although there had been many disasters available to which shock therapy was applied, there were disasters that were created.  When the democratic process chose means that were not favorable to those who were ready to take advantage of a disaster, methods were used to create a crisis such as the removal of democratically elected leaders and policies.  Replacing them with favorable leaders.  Undermining the democratic process, often with violent means.  Instituting and imposing authoritarian measures while claiming to that they are for liberty and the improvement of society.

 

Before disaster capitalism, societies wanted to avoid crises as that hurt the economy and the people.  Due to disaster capitalism, disaster has become profitable.  Rather than losing money due to a disaster, the economy benefits from a crisis.  Even when imposing a crisis on another economy.  Various firms profit from war activities, and then reconstruction efforts.  Firms are being rewarded with rebuilding what they enabled to destroy.  While war activity is compensated, the victims of disaster are not appropriately compensated.

 

Caveats?

The effects of shock therapy are considered from a variety of events from diverse sovereign states.  Many details are provided on the events, but there can be too many details or lack relevance which takes the focus away from a systematic account of the topic.  Even with the details provided, the reader would need to do more research to understand each event. 

 

This book challenges the myths of how effective economic policies have been.  The problem is that the author challenges the myths by providing myths.  This book is a form of destructive tribalism, in which the ideas and people who are the target of the book, are assumed to have an essence.  That anyone who engages with them shares all the same terrible ideas throughout time.  All the harm that is done, the author holds the target group responsible.  When a totalitarian sovereign state considers and changes their economy to be even a little more aligned with the target group, the target group is considered to be responsible for all the totalitarianism.  When the opponents of the target group have power and effect policies that are similar to what the target group wanted, the target group is considered responsible. 

 

Much like how the author criticizes the target group for wanting a pure market system without government, the author wants the targets to appear purely evil. The targets of the book are provided a one-sided narrative, and are given responsibility for every negative consequent.  The author references books written by the targets, but the content in those books that contradict the author’s claims are not referenced. 

 

The focus of the book is when the target group uses disasters for policy opportunities, even though there were a few references to non-target groups using disasters for policy opportunities.  By focusing only on a single target group and making them responsible for everything, has the effect of hiding and empowering other groups who use disasters for their benefit.