Naomi Kleins brilliant 2008 book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, was a visionary breakthrough in understanding how the oligarchy uses catastrophic circumstances to seize economic control of nations. Taking advantage of natural, political and financial upheaval, Klein cogently argues, the apostles of Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand use disaster as an opportunity to implement extremist free-market economic policies while reducing government spending for the common good. The mainstream media and political narrative that we have lived with for years - of lurching from one sensationalist crisis to another - has evolved into a continuous shock doctrine. The neoliberal forces of unfettered capitalism and the global consolidation of wealth advance as we are distracted by lurid coverage that stimulates our fears but not our brains. Akira Watts eloquently addressed this ceaseless barrage of fourth-estate terror in a BuzzFlash commentary yesterday, ISIS, Ebola, and Why Fear of the Unknown Makes Us Stupid.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 19:21:18 +0000