Hello friends: I want to share with you the reading of the book: The Doctrine of the Shock, by N. Klein, I hope that it will be useful for you in the face of so many changes that have occurred on our planet. For example: What ...
Hello friends:
I want to share with you the reading of the book: The Doctrine of the Shock, by N. Klein, I hope that it will be useful for you in the face of so many changes that have occurred on our planet.
For example:
What do traumatic experiences such as the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq by US troops and their allies since the beginning of 2003, the devastating tsunami that hit the coasts of Sri Lanka in 2004 or the destruction of New Orleans by the Hurricane Katrina in 2005?
In his book The Doctrine of Shock. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, the Canadian journalist Naomi Klein postulates that these "traumatic" experiences, as well as others during the last 30 years, have been exploited to establish what has been called as the "disaster capitalism", a doctrine formed under the political, economic and social budgets developed by the father of the Chicago School, Milton Friedman, whose main objective is to dismantle the remains of the Welfare State and promote the neoliberal development model at the global level.
In the opinion of the author, for the followers of Friedman, characterized by their marked neoconservative character, the economic forces of the market such as supply and demand, inflation and unemployment, constitute natural forces, fixed and immutable, to which is necessary return erasing all traces of state intervention that prevent the achievement of the free market, understood as "utopia of entrepreneurs". In this sense, the "disaster capitalism" postulates that behind all "tragedy" it is possible to see an "opportunity", such as taking advantage of the collective trauma to promote and implement radical economic and social reforms based on the basic principles of the corporativism as they are the elimination of the public roll of the State, the absolute freedom of movements of the private companies and a practically null social cost.
It can also be said that the implementation of this model owes its success to a political strategy called "the doctrine of shock", which guides the reconstruction processes implemented in response to both the effects of military interventions and natural disasters of different types. , opening "appetizing business opportunities" to the agents, defenders and promoters of "disaster capitalism".
Klein's present book constitutes a documented journalistic investigation that recreates in detail the long and intricate itinerary of maturation and reproduction of the model proposed by Friedman after the Great Depression of the year '29, constituting a critical reaction to the success achieved by the Keynesian proposals in the US, the social democratic proposals in Europe and the developmental theories in Latin America. Derived from the above, the book also analyzes the formation of a political and business class formed under its ideology and grouped around the Chicago School, from where it has developed an important expansion to different regions of the world since the mid-20th century until today .
In the present text, the author gives a detailed account of the way in which "the doctrine of shock" has been applied at different historical moments and in different regions of the world, in order to impose its free market postulates. These experiences include, for example, the decisive role played by the US government and the CIA in the destabilization of Salvador Allende's socialist government and the active role played by the "Chicago Boys" to make Chile the laboratory of its model. political and economic, protected under the terror and coercion imposed by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In addition, the author also reports on the experiences of shock developed under the governments of Margareth Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the same US during the decade of the '80s, of the transformations implemented in Poland, Russia and South Africa during the decade of the '90s, or the same experience developed in Iraq after the invasion of 2003, and how advantageous it has been in economic terms for the service companies that have been awarded the concessions contemplated under the process of "reconstruction" of said country.
With its wide and profuse worldwide distribution from its original publication date to the present day, Klein's book loses relevance and relevance.
On the one hand, it allows us to understand the historical process of formation of a new ruling class, the so-called "neoconservatives", and the evolution of the ideological postulates that underpin its conformation, as well as its expansion and implementation strategies in different regions of the world.
On the other, it is an invitation to observe attentively, openly and critically the effects of reconstruction plans and programs currently under way in societies affected by armed conflicts or natural disasters, such as the cases of Haiti, Chile and China, currently affected. by individual earthquakes, or Pakistan, India and Brazil, affected by floods, among others. In the case of our country, it acquires even a particular relevance considering its recognition as a laboratory and "successful model" of Friedman's proposals, the depth with which they have been implemented by the political and economic elites, and the social and cultural transformations that have taken place. generated in Chilean society during the last 30 years.
Finally, Klein's book is also an interesting contribution to understand the complexities that go through the processes of production and social construction of the habitat, mainly those characterized by high levels of poverty and vulnerability that affect its population and that are experienced daily by their families. population. Under the understanding that poverty and vulnerability do not constitute natural realities, Klein's work reveals the fundamental importance that actors and economic agents play in this process, the ideological postulates that sustain their proposals and the tools they use for these purposes, framed fundamentally in policies, programs and projects whose scope is not easily identifiable for the whole population.