2 a.m.

sleep came like a knockout drug shortly
after vespers

consciousness returned
and i gazed out to the moonlit
snowfield outside my window

what thoughts attend the night hours
when
others sigh in sleep?

i happened across the thoughts i've been carrying
with me
concerning a book i recently finished-
naomi klein's
"the shock doctrine" ---
the rise of disaster capitalism

the narrative carried me along
much the way a suspense thriller might
carry someone who likes that genre

it is difficult to be simply reasonable and offer
a rational critique of the book
for i found myself reeling from chapter to chapter
like i had hit upon a truth for which i had long
entertained suspicion

ms kleins' thesis is a clear indictment
of the milton friedman school of economics
of the CHICAGO SCHOOL
located at the university of chicago

the rise in influence from this school
was first apparent in the politics of chile
where it (the ideology) was used in the
rise to power of augustin pinochet

klein happened upon the correlation
between the experiments in the 50's and 60's
with "shock therapy" as a means of
managing mental afflictions such as chronic depression
and schizoid patterns of psychological maladjustment

she does not claim to be a scientist or a
critic of research per se
but she does make the observation
through her reading and interviewing some
patients who were the unwitting "victims"
of the experiments

she notes that shock therapy was successful to the extent
that it was able in most cases to all but erase the memory
and therfore the origins of psychological distress
for some people
the difficulty seems to have come about in the realization
that the remaking of lives after this rather violent
intrusion was all but impossible
her book begins with an interview and a commentary
on the life of one woman
who with the help of a friend was able to
piece together something of the traumatic drama of her
life leading up to the experience in shock therapy
and the rather dark period of regaining some sort of
meaning which could constitute a relatively coherent life

one is left asking at the end of the first chapter
if to some extent all of western medicine has
come to the idea of the invasive approach
where the cure is often worse than the disease
even if in the end the disease in question is
sufficiently reduced

the premise then for the remainder of the book
is that the "shock therapy" procedures and the
medical descriptions of these procedures
made their way into the foreign policy thinking

what could be done to an individual through shock therapy
could be done to a society
and with the same or similar results

thus we find through the proceding chapters
a consistent set of evidence to support the thesis

beginning with the governments and the political dramas of
south america
she amasses evidence to show that
there was a deliberate working plan
of action which amounted to "social shock therapy"
and which resulted in the deaths of
untold innocent people
all for the stated or unstated purpose
of bringing about capitalism
so that the "global economy" could be
initiated

you shock a culture a society
by staging a coup
killing the "recalcitrant" leader
cutting social spending drastically
so that all aid to the really needy
is reduced to a trickle
open the financial climate to cheap imports
effectively stopping local production of goods
suppressing labor unions
and use murder and torture to stop
dissent and truth from making their way
into the cultural milieu
create a climate of dread and fear

from chile to brazil to poland to russia
to china (tianenman square) to hungary
to south africa to indonesia
and now to iraq
ms klein is able to paint a picture
of the influence of the CHICAGO BOYS
and the vigilante economics (my coinage)
of the latter part of the 20th century

capitalism at its most unabashed and brutal best!!!

the further thesis is concerned with natural disasters
and the understanding that this creates a shock value as well
an opportunity for "capitalist interest" to take hold in a region
recently reduced to desperation by the forces of nature

she sizes up the relief efforts after hurricane katrina
and the tsunami which killed up to 200,000 people
in the indian ocean a few years ago

here the shock doctors of ecomomics seem to use the
principle that the natural disaster is not so much
a catastrophe
but an opportunity to get the money moving
now instead of old delapidated neighborhoods
in new orleans there can be glitzy hotels and condos
for the rich
and the self sustaining efforts of the poor
the unsightly living spaces which tend to discourage
tourism
can be moved out of sight with all the efficiency
of a tidal wave
and all the delicacy we might add

ultimately i found myself being emotionally conflicted
the book tends to fill in with vivid color the
themes which exist within my realm of knowledge
that existed in black and white outline
somehow i knew all these things were going on
i just never stopped to realize that there was
basically a formulated foreign policy method at work
and that the USA was essentially going about its business
of doing business in the world with impunity
with no accountability
and with devastating results

it is an account of the coldblooded idealism
brought about within the western mindset which
claims supremacy for the freemarket mentality
and the unbridled efforts to impose the
"american way" on the rest of the world
ah yes
people will die
mothers will weep
lives will be ruined
but the money will flow
and after all
that is what matters
is it not?

the friedman school charted a path
which stood in contrast to keynesian ecomomics
of the early part of the 20th century
the school of thought which governed the thinking
of FDR and the Marshall plan before that

john maynard keynes understood that it was in the best interest
of the rich to care for the needs of the poor
government investing in social construction
such as the CCC and the other public works projects
inspired by FDR
are methods of helpful government sponsorship
right out of the keynesian playbook

friedman is not explicit but klein seems to indicate
that the policies emerging from the chicago school
consider the needs of the poor to be little more than
an ongoing irritant
what is important is to make sure the rich guys are in there
getting what they need
in whatever way they need to get it
and the wealth at some point will "trickle down"

i guess ms klein thought it considerate for her readers
to end the book on a positive note
she extols the virtues of grassroots organizations
and the efforts of groups in situ
who have rejected the efforts of the IMF and the WORLD BANK
agencies which became the tools of social change
in the new capitalist agendas of the USA

she stands in admiration of the resiliency of the human spirit
a resiliency that is not accounted for in the shock doctrine
of modern foreign policy
that given the materials for basic survival
and some time to work things out from the ground up
the people of any given place will find their own
ways of doing economics

the lingering question then becomes
when will the chickens come home to roost?

to some extent they already have
the spector of 9/11 still forms the
cultural and political imagination of this country

the "shock" has forced our government
into crisis management mode on its own account
what seems apparent to me
and what naomi klein does not quite say
is that americans are incapable of taking their own medicine

my mind is winding down
perhaps i will follow up on this
on another post

it is now 3 a.m.