I know I sound like a broken record, but I can't say enough good things about The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. I have been a student of economics and history for much of the past 20 years, but I am finding out that a lot of the things I THOUGHT I knew, I don't know half as well as I thought.
When I was first exposed to theory and writings of Karl Marx in the early 90s, one of the first aspects I learned about was that Marx believed that life eventually devolves back to our economic relations. We've been taught that economics is but one of many important facets, but Marx showed that it underlies so much of what we think and do in modern society.
I thought that I had kept this lesson close to my heart ever since, but in reading Klein's book, I realize that I had forgotten about it far more than I would care to admit!! Too often I unwittingly have accepted the pronouncements of government officials and the mainstream media. This book clearly shows that almost everything they decide to share with the public has to do more with the current propaganda angle than actual facts or truth.
To offer an example, I had taken the South African liberation from apartheid at face value. Like most people I know, I focused strictly on the human rights and political aspects of this liberation and did not give much consideration at all to the economic angle. However, as Klein illustrates in Chapter 10, the underlying economic considerations ended up hamstringing the political freedom won.
Klein outlines the Freedom Charter adopted by the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1950s. It is a stirring document that served as the guide for the ANC over the next 40 years or so as they fought to end apartheid. It called for basic human rights like the ability to vote and have a voice in governance as well as many more radical proposals like the redistribution of land and a dismantling of the white corporate state.
Unfortunately, before the keys of the kingdom were handed over to the ANC by the rich white minority, the latter consciously sabotaged the nation's economic system so that it became economically unviable for the new ANC-based government to deliver on the very commitments it had fought so hard for so long to be in the position to implement. In the end, it turned out that gaining political freedom meant a lot less than it should have because economic freedom remained lacking.
Why did the ANC willingly sign on to the very agreements that later hamstrung them? They were sold a bill of goods by Milton Friedman and his cronies. By the time they realized they had been had, it was way too late.
When I was first exposed to theory and writings of Karl Marx in the early 90s, one of the first aspects I learned about was that Marx believed that life eventually devolves back to our economic relations. We've been taught that economics is but one of many important facets, but Marx showed that it underlies so much of what we think and do in modern society.
I thought that I had kept this lesson close to my heart ever since, but in reading Klein's book, I realize that I had forgotten about it far more than I would care to admit!! Too often I unwittingly have accepted the pronouncements of government officials and the mainstream media. This book clearly shows that almost everything they decide to share with the public has to do more with the current propaganda angle than actual facts or truth.
To offer an example, I had taken the South African liberation from apartheid at face value. Like most people I know, I focused strictly on the human rights and political aspects of this liberation and did not give much consideration at all to the economic angle. However, as Klein illustrates in Chapter 10, the underlying economic considerations ended up hamstringing the political freedom won.
Klein outlines the Freedom Charter adopted by the African National Congress (ANC) in the 1950s. It is a stirring document that served as the guide for the ANC over the next 40 years or so as they fought to end apartheid. It called for basic human rights like the ability to vote and have a voice in governance as well as many more radical proposals like the redistribution of land and a dismantling of the white corporate state.
Unfortunately, before the keys of the kingdom were handed over to the ANC by the rich white minority, the latter consciously sabotaged the nation's economic system so that it became economically unviable for the new ANC-based government to deliver on the very commitments it had fought so hard for so long to be in the position to implement. In the end, it turned out that gaining political freedom meant a lot less than it should have because economic freedom remained lacking.
Want to redistribute land? Impossible -- at the last minute, the negotiators agreed to add a clause to the new constitution that protects all private property, making land reform virtually impossible.The list goes on and on and on.
Want to create jobs for millions of unemployed workers? Can't -- hundreds of factories were actually about to close because the ANC had signed on to the GATT, the precursor to the World Trade Organization, which made it illegal to subsidize the auto plants and textile factories.
Want to get free AIDS drugs to the townships, where the disease is spreading with terrifying speed? That violates an intellectual property rights agreement under the WTO, which the ANC joined with no public debate as a continuation of the GATT...
Why did the ANC willingly sign on to the very agreements that later hamstrung them? They were sold a bill of goods by Milton Friedman and his cronies. By the time they realized they had been had, it was way too late.
As we are seeing here in our own country.
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