The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

By Naomi Klein
Metropolitan Books

Because I’m someone who regularly speaks in superlatives, it can be hard to understand just how serious I am that The Shock Doctrine is one of the most important books of the past five years. Naomi Klein long ago proved her journalistic merit and unparalleled ability to deconstruct the core issues of capitalism and globalization, but I’d previously failed to understand Klein’s scholarship as an economist, and how necessary her academic training has been for her political and activist analysis of powerful forces. In this insightful new book, her most challenging to date, she once again demonstrates her unique ability to research and present the state of things in a terrifying coherent way.

The problem is that things are, in fact, terrifying in our world, and Naomi Klein doesn’t try to soothe us with false promises for a glowing future. In her rare format, using journalism to bring difficult information to the masses in terms we can understand (mainstream news media often fails at this basic task), she explains complex economics and public policies that are forcibly implemented in times of climate crisis and social upheaval. Following the rise of Milton Friedman’s Chicago School of Economics, Klein breaks down shifts in economic policy over the past one hundred years. From Pinochet’s coup through the collapse of the Soviet Union to the United States in the wake of 9/11, Klein tracks the trials, failures, and successes of modern sophisticated colonialism. The economic policies implemented directly after the Sri Lankan tsunami and Hurricane Katrina were not a lucky break for the powerful elite in America and abroad; they are practiced models that, in the past half-century, were tested until they have become nearly perfect.

Klein reports from the front lines what many of us fear: this is intentional, and we should be very afraid. When people are in shock, it is the time for strong governments to act against their own, and they do just that, privatizing everything because citizens are too busy trying to remember how to live. It isn’t the time when we stage protests, and even if we did, our efforts would be struck down in the name of false promises of “reconstruction” and “national security.” While it isn’t our fault that things have gotten this bad, we have to be aware of these patterns to save our collective future.

You may not get beyond the second page of this book before you are paralyzed by a nauseous fear, and this is a compliment to Klein’s ability to raise awareness, speak truth to power, and create a desperate call to action. If you want to make sense of modern imperialism in crisis situations and how this will shape the future of our global world, go find a copy of this book. It will change your life.

Review by Brittany Shoot

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The Shock Doctrine