The Shock Doctrine

Imposing capitalistic ideals on a population in a post-disaster crisis is an increasingly common occurrence, most vividly demonstrated by events in wartime Iraq. But journalist Naomi Klein, bestselling author of No Logo maintains that this process of "disaster capitalism" has been in place for decades, with roots in the Chicago School and Milton Friedman’s widely influential economic philosophies. In Klein's latest book, The Shock Doctrine, she makes a compelling case that privileged nations have long made a practice of taking advantage of people who, in literal and metaphorical shock, have regressed to a childlike state and momentarily lose resistance to social control. In highly readable prose, Klein argues reasonably that a free market is not always so free, and that democracy and capitalism do not necessarily arise concomitantly.