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Shock Doctrine: Naomi Klein
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of MSNBC News
Posted: March 8th, 2011
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41702708
Chris Hayes: With me now is journalist and author Naomi Klein whose books include No Logo and The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Not all of our viewers have The Shock Doctrine. Ive seen a few people recently talking about how ... they were skeptical of the thesis before, but whats happening in Wisconsin is making them a little more receptive to it. Describe what the thesis of The Shock Doctrine is and how it applies in what were seeing play out in Wisconsin. Naomi Klein: What I argue in The Shock Doctrine is that if you look at the 30-year history of the triumph of [disastrous] policies around the world, what you see is that youre great leaps forward happened during times of extreme crisis. Thats because in a time of crisis, you have politicians able to do exactly what Scott Walker is doing right now in Wisconsin, which is say, the roof is falling in, we have a state of emergency here, we dont have time for democracy or public consent or deliberation or collective bargaining. So, it becomes an opportunity to ram through these unpopular policies. You have a budget crisis. You exaggerate the extent of the crisis and ... say we dont have any alternative but to push through these very unpopular measures. I think its [particularly] significant that theyre going after collective bargaining. Theyre trying to reduce the ability of participation of the workers in their own futures. Its a constricting of democracy. I end the book by saying that the way you resist these tactics is by understanding that theyre happening while theyre happening. Whats happening in Wisconsin, is an excellent example of what I describe as shock resistance, because people are naming this while its happening.
Note: Many don't know that when Wisconsin Governor Walker ordered police to remove protestors from the state capitol building, the police refused, stating that they took an oath to serve the people and not the governor. To see a two-minute video clip of this amazing event, click here. To see how the major media greatly downplayed this event, read the New York Times coverage available here.
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