Naomi Klein – Shock Doctrine

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I am Jim Miles, a high school teacher of religion and history in the Central Valley of California. I am the lucky husband of Kim Miles, a lovely, wonderful, intelligent, classy lady. I am a musician, a bass-player, veteran of two bands, the most recent of which was called Sol. I am an on-again, off-again blogger, and I present here my own opinions, especially about politics (see the War page, for example), religion, cinema, books, music, and lots of other topics, which you could explore in the tag cloud.

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Naomi Klein – Shock Doctrine

Posted on October 7th, 2007 Jim Miles 3 comments

update: My wife bought the book for me (thanks, honey!) and I have made it through the first chapter. This is truly a ground-breaking book. If the American people are going to “clean house” in our government (the White House, the houses of Congress, the Supreme Court House, etc.) they need to know the information in this book. The author is an award-winning journalist and author; she supplies evidence, abundant evidence, for the extraordinary story she tells.

Get it, read it, and do something about it!

update 2 (November 6): Finishing chapter 17. I cannot read it without a pen in hand, because there is so much to make notes about and underline. The case she builds is solid, documented with 60 pages of endnotes, and devastating to the cause of the corporatists and greed-mongers! I hope that she gets to put all this into a documentary! And read up-to-date reactions, reviews, and more related articles at ShockDoctrine.com.

UPDATE 3 (December 5): Just finished the book. If you read it, it’s crucial that you finish it! The book, because of the nature of its subject, is heavy. It is the biggest, truest, best critique of our Anglo-American economic “religion,” crony, corrupt, capitalism. BUT! In the final chapter, good news for the future gets center stage, and I must say, without that, it would be simply the most depressing book I’ve ever read. But because of the hope offered in the solution we’ve always known was there — band together as The People, which, in fact, is already happening — I know that my confidence in the bedrock values of America are well-placed. Democracy, equality, freedom of press/speech/organization, all of them still found deeply embedded in every community in this country, and, as it turns out, most everywhere else in the world… these are the important values of our society which always “come to the rescue” whenever the corrupt power-grabbers would try to take over.

The feeling with which I am left is extreme humility, and extreme patriotism of the sort that knows and trusts that the common man (and woman), the working man (and woman), the moms and dads and “regular guys” (and “gals”), the salt of the earth, heroes all, these are the most desirable citizens to whom a country’s direction and security and future may be entrusted.

My hope is that we are not yet so divided up and distracted by the manufactured in-fighting served up every day and night by Faux News and its copy-cats in the MSM and the Neocons being exposed to the light of day more and more with every broadcast of DemocracyNow, every blog entry in the alternative media blogosphere, and every water-cooler conversation about who just went bankrupt, lost their house, or has no health insurance, that it’s not too late to expect a better day.

Election 2008 may not be the beginning of the answer to our country’s ills (though that’d be nice); but it is certainly the beginning of the question that leads to that answer:

Who Are We?
Rants Economics
2 responses to “Naomi Klein – Shock Doctrine”
- Jared November 5th, 2007 at 11:38
  
  I ran across this video series recently on YouTube. I sat transfixed through the whole series. Klein makes a compelling case and does it eloquently and sometimes humorously. Thanks for sharing!
- Jim Miles November 6th, 2007 at 12:26
  
  Appreciate the comment, Jared. And I like what you’re doing with your blog: check it out people at http://adventist-environmental-advocacy.blogspot.com
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- Naomi Klein - Shock Doctrine « Jimblog.net November 20th, 2007 at 15:08
  
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