On my way to Ghost Ranch for a couple of weeks, I have picked up the book – The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. My interest in the book comes from Roberto Jordan’s key note address at the Peacemaking Conference.
Roberto spoke about the coup that ousted Salvador Allende, president of Chile, on September 11, 1973.
He said, "What should be clear to all is that it was not a military coup which installed a whole economic policy; rather it was an economic policy that needed the brutality of the military to impose and sustain it because in no other way could it have ever been possible. This is a perception that has been sustained for ages and which has now been presented by Naomi Klein in her recent book The Shock Doctrine."
Roberto went on to note that Klein talks about three stages to what she calls the shock doctrine:
– Creating a shock situation: wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, creation of chaos;
– Implementing a shock economy which when is resisted by the people, leads to
– Police, military, prison, interrogation, torture, etc. shock treatment to uphold the shock.
I found Roberto’s presentation intriguing, so I decided to check out the book for myself.
Photo of Roberto Jordan by Irene Pak.