The Shock Doctrine
By Naomi Klein
Liberals in the United States
 In 2008, exit polls showed 22% of electorate
self-identified as “liberal”
 This represents a large proportion of
American population, well over 50 million
potential customers
 This book is more easily marketable to this
niche of American consumers
Summary
 The Shock Doctrine presents many
arguments appealing to liberal consumers...
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Big business and gov’t exploit disasters for
monetary gain
Free-market systems are not optimal, and
gov’t must enforce them with torture
American gov’t forced to make concessions to
the political left during Cold War, but are not
bound anymore
Gov’t privatization is destructive to economy
Endorsements
 After circulating this manuscript, the book
received high praise from many publications
and personalities
 These many endorsements will increase
appeal for liberal customers
Endorsements
 “This is a brilliant book, one
of the most important I have
read in a long time.”
-Howard Zinn
Endorsements
 “ [Shock Doctrine] Pulls
the curtain back on
free-market myths and
exposes the forces that
are really driving our
economy... Klein’s
book is powerful and
prophetic... A brilliant
dissection”
-Arianna Huffington
Endorsements
 “A revelation! With
unparalleled courage and
clarity Naomi Klein has
written the most important
and necessary book of her
generation...so important
and so revelatory a book that
could very well prove a
catalyst, a watershed, a
tipping point in the
movement for economic and
social justice”
-Tim Robbins
Endorsements from Publications
 The Washington Post
 The Independent (U.K.)
 The Telegraph (U.K.)
 New Statesman (U.K.)
 In These Times
 Ms. Magazine
 The New York Observer
 John Cusack
 Dow Jones Business
News
 NOW Magazine
(Canada)
 Toronto Star
Summary of Text
 Divided into 23 Chapters, each covering
different examples
 Locales include...
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Latin America, United Kingdom, Poland,
China, South Africa, Russia, United States,
and Iraq
 All of these examples reinforce arguments
Aesthetic Appeal of Publication
 All chapters and sections begin with diverse
quotes pertaining to topic
 Well organized and thoughtfully constructed
 Needs to be shortened at certain points
Introduction: “Blank is Beautiful”
 Introduction of Milton Friedman’s ideas
 Introduction of the eponymous “Shock
Doctrine”
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Use of disasters and national turmoil in order
to introduce free-market policies
 Overview of examples to be presented later
Chapter 1: “The Torture Lab”
 Introduces Dr. Ewen Cameron, who is hardly
mentioned after this chapter, who experiments with
electroshock therapy and “deprogramming” of
personalities
 Discusses connection between free-market systems
and torture, priming the audience for the “shock” of
economic policies
 Likens deprogramming of patients to deprogramming
of economic welfare policies
 While illogical at parts, our intended audience will see
the obvious connection between both electroshock
torture and “shock” economic policies
Chapter 2: “The Other Doctor Shock”
 Introduces Milton Friedman
 Discusses the implications of Chicago School
economic theory
 CIA-sponsored coups allowed Friedman to
influence economic policy in Latin America
 Exchange program set up to send Chilean
students to ultra-conservative University of
Chicago
Chapter 3: “States of Shock”
 Milton Friedman advises General Augusto
Pinochet
 Pinochet dismantles “developmental”
economic system
 Free-market policies were instituted
 Costs of basics went “through the roof,”
inflation was at all-time high, country was
flooded with cheap imports
 Big business benefits greatly, while poor are
left to suffer
Chapter 4: Cleaning the Slate
 Free-market ideology quickly spread to
Argentina and Uruguay, with copious use of
torture techniques and privatization
 Pinochet repeatedly called to trial for crimes
against humanity
 Gov’ts in the Southern Cone were brutal
towards dissenters, “disappearing” large
populations of suspected unionists and
leftists
Chapter 5: “Entirely Unrelated”
 Friedman’s argument for separating
economic policy with human rights abuses
unfounded
 Free-market policies are enforced by mass
terror and detention
 United States gov’t supported these abuses,
and put undue blame on leftists guerrillas in
Southern Cone
Chapter 6: “Saved by War”
 Introduction of Thatcherism
 Margaret Thatcher used Falklands war to
institute privatization of British assets and
make domestic war against coal miners strike
in 1984
 Thatcher did not go as far as dictators
because she had to get reelected
Chapter 7: “A New Doctor Shock”
 Bolivia’s ills are introduced: inflation of over
14,000%
 Harvard Economist Jeffrey Sachs called in to
develop anti-inflation policies
 Sachs introduced free-market policies against
wishes of voters
 Inflation dropped to 10%, but not without
pains
 Unemployment rose to 30%
 Failure, argues the book
Chapter 8: “Crisis Works”
 Milton Friedman’s disdain towards the IMF
and World Bank is discussed
 While he may have disdained them, Klein
argues that “no institutions [were] better
positioned to implement his crisis theory”
 IMF forced gov’ts to adopt radical freemarket policies as prerequisites for loans
 Lower tax rates led countries to be unable to
pay back loans
Chapter 9: “Slamming the Door on
History”
 Discusses Poland’s “Solidarity” movement
 Betrayal of socialist goals to the free-market
policies of Jeffrey Sachs, Friedman’s “Shock
Doctrine” successor
 Discusses China’s market liberalization
 Massacre at Tiananmen Square discussed,
connecting it to said liberalizations
Chapter 10: “Democracy Born in
Chains”
 End of apartheid in South Africa discussed
 While fighting under a banner of land-
redistribution, African National Congress
(ANC) betrays supporters by signing over
economic control of country to whites
 De Klerk gov’t convinces ANC to promote
radical free-market systems, which continue
the economic apartheid of previous regime
Chapter 11: “Bonfire of a Young
Democracy”
 Soviet Union collapses; Boris Yeltsin gains
power through dubious means
 Auctions off massive Soviet monopolies to
Oligarchs
 Over 225,000 state-owned companies
privatized
 Third of population fell below poverty line
 Yeltsin enforces policies through emergency
powers; fires on parliament
Chapter 12: “The Capitalist ID”
 Discusses the idea that Western gov’t
implemented social democratic policies in
order to appease leftists and maintain military
control over European countries
 Ruining of Canada’s credit score was
concocted by free-market ideologues in order
to defeat social welfare policies
Chapter 13: “Let it Burn”
 Asian Tigers (South Korea, Philippines,
Taiwan, and Singapore) economically
destroyed by market fluctuations
 Stronger gov’t policies would have prevented
this fluctuation, saving countless lives and
jobs
Chapter 14: “Shock Therapy in the
U.S.A.”
 Harshly criticizes Rumsfeld’s control of private
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assets representing a conflict of interests with his
Cabinet position
Also criticizes Rumsfeld’s outsourcing of the military
effort, which increases costs and creates companies
not accountable to justice systems
Market for constant warfighting created through
defense privatizations
Many jobs contracted out, as federal bureaucracy
was downsized
Market for surveillance technology ballooned after
9/11
Chapter 15: “A Corporatist State”
 Rumsfeld owned large share of company
controlling Tamiflu, and sought policies to
increase profits
 Corporations beginning to dictate policy more
aggressively
Chapter 16: “Erasing Iraq”
 After the initial shock of invasion, Paul
Bremer instituted massive free-market
policies and torture in order to erase dissent
 Iraq was testing ground for neo-conservative
ideas that could not be implemented in United
States
 Privatization of military and reconstruction
policies created inefficiencies in
reconstruction, and poor results
Chapter 17: “Ideological Blowback”
 Iraqi’s had no control over their own
reconstruction
 Subcontracting abounded, driving down
quality of reconstruction
 Free-market systems fed violence as
thousands were plunged into poverty
 United States “locked in” Bremer’s policies
into the Constitution
Chapter 18: “Full Circle”
 Free-market policies pillaged Iraq of any
prosperity, leaving a scorched, violent land
 Human rights groups watched as hundreds
were tortured and detained
 Skilled labor has fled Iraq
 Mahdi Army arises to provide basic services
and defense for disenfranchised Iraqis
Chapter 19: “Blanking the Beach”
 The tsunami in Sri Lanka removed all
ancestral homes from beaches, allowing
hotels to buy up land
 Hotel lobbyists influenced gov’t of Sri Lanka
to allow them rights to beachfronts, while
poor fisher families were moved inland
 U.S. gov’t supported this in order to increase
tourism
Chapter 20: “Disaster Apartheid”
 While U.S. gov’t helped wealthier Katrina
victims, the poor were left to suffer
 Milton Friedman’s last publication called for
privatization of New Orleans schools
 Companies were called in to help with
reconstruction of New Orleans, with negative
results
 Very inefficient disaster response due to freemarket solutions
Chapter 21: “Losing the Peace
Incentive”
 In Israel, a booming market for high-tech
surveillance and anti-terrorist equipment has
been created by 9/11
 In order to improve technology to be sold to
the United States, Israel has no need to
pursue peace.
 This hampers any solutions to IsraelPalestine problems
Chapter 22: “Shock Wears Off”
 In Latin American societies, gov’ts have been
constitutionally elected once more, and are
moving towards developmentalism once
again
 The shock doctrine’s policies will continue to
be felt for years to come, but the world is on a
road to recovery
In Conclusion
 While overlong and preachy, this book is
destined to be on the shelves of every liberal
American, and is a profitable addition to our
catalog