Superb
This well-researched book is clearly written and should be read by anyone wanting to understand world politics and economics.
Food for thought
For the first nine chapters of the SHOCK DOCTRINE by Naomi Klein I could not put the book down until I had finished reading it word for word. Having been suitably impressed I immediately purchased three additional copies and have given them out to professional colleagues who I know enjoy reading about history and economics, especially in regards to humanitarian and development issues in third world countries, and their volatile causes/treatments.
I work in a team of people providing business advice on risk, governance, financial viability, and management issues within government circles. We rely on evidence based information and examples of best practice standards in an attempt to form meaningful, arms length, positive future based recommendations to safeguard the needs of various stakeholders. This is done to uphold a particular values and belief system within the culture we operate in.
Naomi Klein's SHOCK DOCTRINE provides a stunning example of all of these factors - the theory, the principles to be applied from this theory, the political element, the execution, the results, and the feedback and refinement of the theory. The context is the way in which free-market economic revolutions require the subjugation of the psychological free will of the people to form their own consensus, and their own democracy, to be accepted. While I'm still slowly digesting the rest of the book, one of the most compelling observations I think KLEIN makes early on, is that purist capitalism does not allow for the presence of competing or tempering world views; it requires a monopoly on ideology. This monopoly condition is a total contradiction in the free-market theory which is supposed to actively encourage competition so that ALL consumer's utility can be maximized at the "bliss point" under Pareto Optimality conditions i.e. having the ability to execute CHOICE is the defining benefit of liberalism, and free-markets over state run command economies.
If you're interested in the use of university silo economics based research, psychological trauma, their theoretical underpinnings and how these have been imposed on real people and communities, and the variable results (some negative, some positive), the SHOCK DOCTRINE is essential and excellent reading. You don't have to agree or disagree with everything presented here; the value of a good non-fiction book like Klein's is in the evidence base, and how carefully linked the conclusion is made to this base. Definitely food for thought.
The Shock Doctrine audiobook
Not being an economist, I found this audiobook understandable and interesting. The author made the concepts clear, a point of view everyone should consider within the mix.
Disappointing
I listened to Naomi Klein on a podcast where she was giving a speech, as I recall, to folks gathered at the University of Chicago. Her presentation was well-organized, intriguing, and invited further exploration. So I purchased the book to explore the subject further.
This is one of those situations where more argues for less -- less detail if non-economists are to follow the labyrinth of public facts and private assumptions, fewer allegations unsupported by research footnotes, and smaller conspiratorial webs.
The Shock Doctrine reminds me of literature generated by Populists during the turn of the nineteenth century. In place of the wounded yeoman farmer, Naomi Klein introduces us to supporters of "pink" economies who succumb to conspiracies engineered by the Chicago Boys and the Berkeley Mafia, all of whom are disciples of Doctor Shock, Milton Friedman.
Naomi gives a small elite much more credit than they are due and, if true on some key points, raises more doubts in my mind about the competence of journalism and the "loyal opposition" during much of the time chronicled in this deeply disappointing book.
A MUST READ!
My first copy of "THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, the rise of disaster capitalism" by Naomi Klein was a gift from a friend.
After i had read 3 chapters i wanted EVERYONE to read it because it goes to the roots of the current economic meltdown.
It is very well written..a 'page turner' and truly shocking about what it reveals the U.S. the IMF and the WORLD BANK have done around the world since the '70s causing immense suffering and bloodshed in forcing poor countries to have 'FREE MARKETS"
I have already given away 11 copies and just bought 5 more to give away.
It's a MUST READ if you want to understand our current economic problems.
(325 reviews)