OpenLeft: Shock Doctrine double down

[marmar]

Shock Doctrine double down
by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Feb 21, 2010 at 15:45


In The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein convincingly argued that "free market" capitalism did not spread worldwide because people welcomed it freely, but because it was forced on them against their will, imposed through a series of shocks--military coups, financial crises, physical disasters--that left people, and entire societies reeling, unable to get their bearings, much less respond critical to the most critical of situations.

Now, however, we've reached a critical turning point: the entire system that was built up by Shock Doctrine strategy is itself coming apart at the seams--and now, rather than standing back, and saying, "Now wait a minute!" the elite consensus in most quarters is to double down on our past mistakes. Now, the very shock of the systems collapse is being used to try to extend it--not just a little further, but far further than ever before.

The main focal point of this effort is the two-pronged battle to (1) prevent anything close to an adequate fiscal response to generate a full-employment recovery, and (2) prevent anything close the necessary re-regulation of the financial sector, so that the national and world economy can be restored to a sound financial foundation. The Obama Administration double-faulted on these twin challenges within its first few weeks in office, and things have been going downhill ever since.

Now passive failure is being turned into active malevolence, as Obama has appointed a commission to address the issue of America's long-term debt--a problem that only exists in the far long term--2050 or so, and only then because we've had an out-of-control health care sector for almost as long as our financial sector has been out of control--as I argued in my diary "Health care costs over time--how the US became so different & why conservatives can't fix it" earlier today. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.openleft.com/diary/17501/shock-doctrine-double-down

[WillyT]

1. Deal With It... K & R !!!

Time to fight back folks...

:kick:

[earth mom]

2. K & R & Bookmarked! nt

[Political Heretic]

3. The full article is excellent, added to my Evernote repository

[malaise]

4. Yes indeed

The response to the guru declaring that the model failed is to shove the model further down people's throats.
Excellent article

[bvar22]

5. The Democratic Party can no longer be trusted to deal with this problem.

They joined the Looters in 1992.

[marmar]

6. Sad but true.

nt

[Odin2005]

8. Every single one of the DLCers needs to be put into the stocks and have...

...rotten veggies thrown at them.

[pleah]

7. K&R

[pattmarty]

9. It is more and more looking that Obama's legacy will be................

............"the commission President". He's sure appointed a lot so far and in my opinion you appoint a commission if you don't want a god damn thing done, but so it looks like you do. Again, my personal feeling on the "insurance reform" is the new version will be worse than the old version. Do honest fucking reform, people will be knocking down the fucking doors if there were a Medicare "buy-in".

[Lorien]

14. I really don't see how our economy can have a prayer of recovery without

financial system re-regulation and universal single payer-or a robust public option at minimum. With over 60% of bankruptcies and foreclosures due to health care costs the downward spiral simply won't stop until new policies are put into place.

[pattmarty]

19. AND, that is why I am depressed after a year of "Change we can..........

.............believe in". I'm 63 and am doing "ok" and won't really have to worry about what's coming down the road. You (if you are younger), my kids, and others kids won't be so lucky. There will be no jobs for undereducated people, no regulations to protect consumers, and other shit that I can't even imagine. I am really beginning to believe if you are one of the millions that weren't born into wealth you are fucked, and it may have been that way all along but at least you had the "belief" that you could do better than your parents and your kids would do better (or at the very least "as good") than you.

[truedelphi]

18. You got it.

And he is also strangely silent when a bold statement needs to be made, then he comes out later in the game and right as it is obvious that the best option cannot succeed he makes a speech about how much he wishes that the best option could happen, and on and on.

Anyway I thought that I caught Obama in major LIES early on and that made me realize only one of two things is possible:

1) he simply doesn't understand the words in his speeches that he delivers with such conviction, which I guess would mean he is brain dead (and since he doesn't look the way the very brain dead George W looked, that choice is probably out)
2) he is a liar and it doesn't bother him to lie as long as he is able to hood wink some 22% of the Democrats into thinking that he has their backs and is truly an impressive leader.

[DisgustedInMN]

10. Very informative, scary but eye opening..

.. for those that weren't already aware. Problem is, most won't bother and of those that do, many will still deny the reality. The time is short for correcting our Nation's course. A collapse of society is a real possibility, there's a growing anger, born of desperation and dashed hopes that we would finally turn a corner towards a fairer America by putting a man, the We the People were led to believe, was the Leader of OUR Movement, into office, only to have him turn around and disappoint us in almost every way.

There is a storm on the horizon, a big, nasty, frightening, ugly storm. And it's growing.

[Echo In Light]

11. Funny how many easily buy into "passive failure" while downplaying "active malevolence."

K&R

[bertman]

12. K & R. nt

[Lorien]

13. K & R-very important reading!

As Elizabeth Warren says; the problems are just as obvious as the solutions, but the political will to address them still does not exist.

[Greyhound]

15. No, no, it can't happen... K&R

[branders seine]

16. case in point: Wall Street

[apimomfan2]

17. It's the drowning in a bathtub of our Secular Gov't

that Norquist has salivated over since before Reagan. It's how you get to a Theocracy, and 0bama has his foot "pedal to the metal."