The shock doctrine
By Naomi Klein,
I decided to read it as it seemed relevant to the current time of what is going on in Japan etc and it's a book I've been meaning to read for a while so as it was available in the library, why not.
Having only just started and got past the introduction it appears that the real inducer of the current economic practice is to "wipe the slate clean" and start rebuilding with contracts going out to major players and disregarding the public, by using shock and awe tactics it would seem that people are usually too bewildered to argue and even if they do aren't listened to anyway and if they continue to argue are usually pariahed or worse.
She has so far stated that this seems to be a method of free market capitalism endorsed by Milton Friedman, who has nominated himself as a follow up read, who seemed to think and pushed for crisis being one of the best catalyst's for economic change and if you can implement the change sooner then the better.
(An example of an early example of this is probably World War One, though so far the history has only truly extended back to the 70's and 80's with a glimpse of the first steps being taken in late 40's / 50's)
It would appear that Margaret Thatcher was an admirer of Friedman, hence, the deregulation of the market, cutting of social spending, privatization of services and helpful tax cuts to help government help corporations turn a profit, in the past a lot of developments have been gently urged along by the reduction of certain taxes. Thatcher, it is argued, probably exploited the fever of nationalism stoked by the Falklands war, which people also credit to her being re-elected whilst the country at the time was in such a mess; high unemployment, recession and literaly fighting in the streets (though to be honest my memory from the time is a wee bit sketchy, I was only 4 ish) and her chances of re-election were supposedly slim.
Now in this country we have the fever of reducing the deficit and keeping the country and the world secure and democratized by taking on those troublesome muslims, stoked by the biggest disaster of the 21st century, September 11th, an event so shocking that it appears to have a hit a level of consciousness that will probably be in time to come to be known as an era and phrase as well bandied about as "post war", if it hasn't already. And in ten short years it would appear that muslim has become a byword of racism, supassing p*** and n******, there's more surveillance and if we have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear and we are cocooned and kept in sensory deprivation by what passes for popular culture these days. Shocks are usually, inherently so, more shocking after a period of sensory deprivation.
As a bynote I was lucky enough to hear and watch the last three years or so of British number one singles, truly chilling and just ever so slightly homogenous, and I also noted that although the programme intended to play all the number ones from the 21st century there seemed to be a Rage Against The Machine gap. Most of the songs and the videos seemed to celebrate going out and having a good time, spending money and the usual pop dross of love and its pernickety ways, that is what pop music has always been about, I know, Motown, which to some is a byword for good music was run by Berry Gordy, in my opinion, a Simon Cowell for his day. Other then the occasional charity single I can't think of any recent chart single that critiques or makes mention of a recent global or local political event.
I just wonder what happens when we hit saturation, what new things will we be sold next, I have a feeling the counter culture is equally appealing to the market.
Anyway that's what I think after only reading the introduction.
Other books I'd like to read following from this are
The Wealth Of Nations,
Some Milton Friedman
and John Maynard Keynes
Sorry for the rant I just realised that my reviews were slightly monosyllabic and therefore pointless, I've realised that I tend to consume books rather than reading them, i.e. I wolf them down without savouring them or taking time to chew.
Bill Bryson's 'Home' was an enjoyable and rewarding read. I decided to read it after reading some parts of a serialisation in a newspaper, it appealed to my trivial knowledge aspect, though with a poor memory it seemed I've probably only remembered one or two pieces of trivia, I found some of his thinking a bit too lateral in that the subject discussed and the chapter headings seemed somewhat disparate to me. Being an American I think he strayed back home a fair bit and he obviously has a lot of respect for Thomas Jefferson, which is fair enough but as his starting point was a parsonage built in 1851 I feel he pursued his own interests a bit too much and possibly wandered away from what I though would be the principle tenets of the book, though I concede it would have probably been a much drier and less enjoyable read if he had stuck so rigidly to such a narrow subject matter.
I truly enjoyed the chapter on stairs which seemed to be a perfect mix of what I was expecting, quirky, informative and thought provoking with elements of the obvious, scientific and sheer wonder.
Other subjects I'd like to follow up with are
something about The East India Trading Company, which will probably tie up with the book above as it was one of the first global mega corporations.
I decided to read it as it seemed relevant to the current time of what is going on in Japan etc and it's a book I've been meaning to read for a while so as it was available in the library, why not.
Having only just started and got past the introduction it appears that the real inducer of the current economic practice is to "wipe the slate clean" and start rebuilding with contracts going out to major players and disregarding the public, by using shock and awe tactics it would seem that people are usually too bewildered to argue and even if they do aren't listened to anyway and if they continue to argue are usually pariahed or worse.
She has so far stated that this seems to be a method of free market capitalism endorsed by Milton Friedman, who has nominated himself as a follow up read, who seemed to think and pushed for crisis being one of the best catalyst's for economic change and if you can implement the change sooner then the better.
(An example of an early example of this is probably World War One, though so far the history has only truly extended back to the 70's and 80's with a glimpse of the first steps being taken in late 40's / 50's)
It would appear that Margaret Thatcher was an admirer of Friedman, hence, the deregulation of the market, cutting of social spending, privatization of services and helpful tax cuts to help government help corporations turn a profit, in the past a lot of developments have been gently urged along by the reduction of certain taxes. Thatcher, it is argued, probably exploited the fever of nationalism stoked by the Falklands war, which people also credit to her being re-elected whilst the country at the time was in such a mess; high unemployment, recession and literaly fighting in the streets (though to be honest my memory from the time is a wee bit sketchy, I was only 4 ish) and her chances of re-election were supposedly slim.
Now in this country we have the fever of reducing the deficit and keeping the country and the world secure and democratized by taking on those troublesome muslims, stoked by the biggest disaster of the 21st century, September 11th, an event so shocking that it appears to have a hit a level of consciousness that will probably be in time to come to be known as an era and phrase as well bandied about as "post war", if it hasn't already. And in ten short years it would appear that muslim has become a byword of racism, supassing p*** and n******, there's more surveillance and if we have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear and we are cocooned and kept in sensory deprivation by what passes for popular culture these days. Shocks are usually, inherently so, more shocking after a period of sensory deprivation.
As a bynote I was lucky enough to hear and watch the last three years or so of British number one singles, truly chilling and just ever so slightly homogenous, and I also noted that although the programme intended to play all the number ones from the 21st century there seemed to be a Rage Against The Machine gap. Most of the songs and the videos seemed to celebrate going out and having a good time, spending money and the usual pop dross of love and its pernickety ways, that is what pop music has always been about, I know, Motown, which to some is a byword for good music was run by Berry Gordy, in my opinion, a Simon Cowell for his day. Other then the occasional charity single I can't think of any recent chart single that critiques or makes mention of a recent global or local political event.
I just wonder what happens when we hit saturation, what new things will we be sold next, I have a feeling the counter culture is equally appealing to the market.
Anyway that's what I think after only reading the introduction.
Other books I'd like to read following from this are
The Wealth Of Nations,
Some Milton Friedman
and John Maynard Keynes
Sorry for the rant I just realised that my reviews were slightly monosyllabic and therefore pointless, I've realised that I tend to consume books rather than reading them, i.e. I wolf them down without savouring them or taking time to chew.
Bill Bryson's 'Home' was an enjoyable and rewarding read. I decided to read it after reading some parts of a serialisation in a newspaper, it appealed to my trivial knowledge aspect, though with a poor memory it seemed I've probably only remembered one or two pieces of trivia, I found some of his thinking a bit too lateral in that the subject discussed and the chapter headings seemed somewhat disparate to me. Being an American I think he strayed back home a fair bit and he obviously has a lot of respect for Thomas Jefferson, which is fair enough but as his starting point was a parsonage built in 1851 I feel he pursued his own interests a bit too much and possibly wandered away from what I though would be the principle tenets of the book, though I concede it would have probably been a much drier and less enjoyable read if he had stuck so rigidly to such a narrow subject matter.
I truly enjoyed the chapter on stairs which seemed to be a perfect mix of what I was expecting, quirky, informative and thought provoking with elements of the obvious, scientific and sheer wonder.
Other subjects I'd like to follow up with are
something about The East India Trading Company, which will probably tie up with the book above as it was one of the first global mega corporations.