The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Through her groundbreaking reporting from Iraq, Naomi Klein revealed how the invasion's tragedy was being used to reshape the nation to suit the interests of foreign businesses. Her term for it was "disaster capitalism." While covering the aftermath of the tsunami in Sri Lanka and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, she saw a striking parallel. A new round of economic "shock treatment" was being inflicted upon those still suffering from the devastation, with land and houses being quickly taken over by corporations. The Shock Doctrine recounts the tale of Milton Friedman's free market economic revolution, which has become the most pervasive ideology of our day. Contrary to the widely held belief that this movement has won the globe over peacefully, Klein demonstrates how it has taken advantage of shockwaves and violent outbursts to impose its economic ideas throughout a wide range of regions, including South Africa, Russia, Iraq, and Eastern and Latin America. The fundamental element of disaster capitalism is in the use of catastrophic occurrences to promote extreme privatization, along with the commercialization of the disaster response process. Klein contends that the disaster capitalism complex, which thrives on natural or man-made disasters, is the violent conclusion of a radical economic agenda that has been simmering for fifty years.