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Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

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Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby gampy » Sun 20 Jan 2008, 09:09:26

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050502/klein

This article briefly summarizes her book, I believe, and gives a snapshot of what she explores.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ast summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."


...later in the article:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hree months after the tsunami hit Aceh, the New York Times ran a distressing story reporting that "almost nothing seems to have been done to begin repairs and rebuilding." The dispatch could easily have come from Iraq, where, as the Los Angeles Times just reported, all of Bechtel's allegedly rebuilt water plants have started to break down, one more in an endless litany of reconstruction screw-ups. It could also have come from Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai recently blasted "corrupt, wasteful and unaccountable" foreign contractors for "squandering the precious resources that Afghanistan received in aid." Or from Sri Lanka, where 600,000 people who lost their homes in the tsunami are still languishing in temporary camps. One hundred days after the giant waves hit, Herman Kumara, head of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement in Negombo, Sri Lanka, sent out a desperate e-mail to colleagues around the world. "The funds received for the benefit of the victims are directed to the benefit of the privileged few, not to the real victims," he wrote. "Our voices are not heard and not allowed to be voiced."

But if the reconstruction industry is stunningly inept at rebuilding, that may be because rebuilding is not its primary purpose. According to Guttal, "It's not reconstruction at all--it's about reshaping everything." If anything, the stories of corruption and incompetence serve to mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering. And on this front, the reconstruction industry works so quickly and efficiently that the privatizations and land grabs are usually locked in before the local population knows what hit them. Kumara, in another e-mail, warns that Sri Lanka is now facing "a second tsunami of corporate globalization and militarization," potentially even more devastating than the first. "We see this as a plan of action amidst the tsunami crisis to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign corporations and tourism, with military assistance from the US Marines."

Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.


I have not had a chance to pick it up and read it, but I have seen a lot of interviews that talk about the premise and ideas discussed in the book.

Any thoughts? I understand that Naomi Klein is probably not too popular amongst the more free marketeer/ neoliberal folks around here, but I found the ideas she talks about good for connecting the dots. Plus I think it's very perceptive on her part. A pretty novel way to look at things.

Why countries are invaded, and how the
Chicago school / Friedman types justified the actions taken in Iraq after the occupation.

I think it would be useful to talk about this book here. Would love to hear from more conservative, right wing folks as well as centrists, libertarians, and leftists.
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby Nicholai » Sun 20 Jan 2008, 17:09:07

Yeah from what I've heard it's a terribly frightening book. It's good...just frightening...
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby gampy » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 03:27:53

I have a funny feeling that this market drop worldwide, and probably in the US this week is going to provide the perfect opportunity to practice "disaster capitalism" in the US economy as a whole.

I think the neoliberals at the world bank, IMF, and in the White House
are going to try to ram through some very dodgy fundamentalist economic policies over the course of this global financial meltdown.

People are going to be looking for someone to rescue the economy (and their homes and jobs) and will accept some things they would never normally accept.

I think the powers that be will try to implement some Friedman-esque,
Sachs-like rollback of public services, and tax cuts. Cities will privatise their sewers and water mains, more private toll roads, and most disturbingly...more military, and federal services.

I think we are going to see some serious merger activity this year. Who wants to bet on who is going to own 25% of the financial services sector?

Lol...this is just what Klein talks about. People are so concerned when the shit hits the fans , that stuff like this flys under the radar.
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby jboogy » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 03:35:20

I think Naomi is awesome, I've had a crush on her for a few years now. I've read a lot of excerpts from the book, whenever and wherever I can find them. From what I understand the book is thouroughly resourced and footnoted, no conjecture and very little opinion, she basically backs up all her assertions with verifiable facts and figures. I wouldn't mind seeing it required reading in some colleges, really an eye-opener that dovetails nicely with "confessions of an economic hit-man."
Perhaps the population would be less swayed to socialism if we had fewer examples of socialism from our "Free Market Capitalists". -----fiddler dave
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby gampy » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 03:54:15

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jboogy', 'I') think Naomi is awesome, I've had a crush on her for a few years now. "


Lol, yeah she is attractive as well as smart. I was watching an interview with her on C-Span, and the poor guy talking to her was stammering and fumbling like a school boy. Haha. She can sound a little shrill, and repetitive in interviews, but she knows her shit.
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby mos6507 » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 04:45:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jboogy', 'I') wouldn't mind seeing it required reading in some colleges"


Yeah, the students can read it inbetween attending speeches from Ahmadinejad.
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby gampy » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 15:09:46

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jboogy', 'I') wouldn't mind seeing it required reading in some colleges"


Yeah, the students can read it inbetween attending speeches from Ahmadinejad.


Lol...we have our first dimwit response. You win the prize!
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby AlCzervik » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 15:21:03

Naomi Klein and Naomi Wolf are all over the radio and internet warning us about the neocons and fascism and I can never keep them straight, but I think Klein is more of an economics maven.
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Re: Has anyone read Naomi Klein's new book?

Unread postby gampy » Tue 22 Jan 2008, 15:42:28

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlCzervik', 'N')aomi Klein and Naomi Wolf are all over the radio and internet warning us about the neocons and fascism and I can never keep them straight, but I think Klein is more of an economics maven.


Klein is a lot of things, but she is predominately an economics maven (as you said) with a viewpoint from the socialist side of things. She is not a communist or full-on socialist, but someone who understands that aspects of socialism have a very important role in the modern democratic nation state.

She is advocating what she calls a "mixed economy", a kind of pluralistic economic model, where fundamentalism (either from the socialist side, or the free market side) is bad, but somewhat necessary to keep the center in the center. Hope that makes sense.
When the center moves to far left or right, bad stuff happens and is out of equilibrium. Policies are pushed through that are hard to undo.

You need aspects of both to maintain checks and balances and stability. Most western states (EU, North America, Japan, aspects of China even) are mixed economies, and is the reason they are stable. IMHO. The US is probably a little more free market driven, and northern Europe is probably a little more socialist, but they are both pluralistic, with a healthy mix of socialism and free markets, with strong public institutions like the judiciary, and rule of law.

What Klein warns against is aspects of the current regime in the US trying to enact their economic utopia. Which requires a clean slate to rebuild an economy in their image. They don't want a mixed economy, they want the neoliberal version.

You can see that the socialists in South America are doing something similar...they don't want a mixed economy either, they want to remake their nations into something that is a pipedream, an ideology, a monolithic economy that follows the rules of their ideology. This is what is dangerous about the current trends in the US. Ideologues are using disaster, and upheaval to push their particular brand of economics through. You see the constant hollowing out of government institutions by privatization. The military in the US is a good example. Mixed with crony capitalism, you are going to see a rise in corporatism in the near future.

Ideologies are dangerous when given power.
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