Disasters throw us temporary into a state in which it is easier for us to be manipulated. This is the “Shock Doctrine”, to engage in or to take benefits from whatever the shock looks like, in order to catch the power. The method may be found at the institutional level: the first shock, a natural disaster or a war, prepares the ground so that an elite can apply the desirable institutional system. Once the system is put to work, the dissidence is controlled through shock- therapy, like the torture applied to some opponents.

The main idea form,  The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, which is the new bible for the people who disagree globalization, for left movements occurring everywhere, is to find historical situation where the method serves the capitalism: Pinochet in Chile, Sachs in Bolivia, Rumsfeld in Irak.

The strategy of this book consists in the association between the brutal and undemocratic elements in this situations and parts from Milton Friedman’s ideas. Milton Friedman and capitalist elites understood this philosophy of control and used it to implement an unpopular economic model.

1.To what extent the critics of corporatist capitalism are applied to simpler capitalism?

2.How relevant are the historical situations described by Naomi Klein for the spread of capitalism? To what extent the model can be applied to the 1989 moment?

3.Can we talk about conspiracies?

4.What makes this book successful?

5.What are the tools to help us observe the unpopularity of the capitalist model?

Presenter: Ionut Sterpan

Lectures: Naomi Klein – The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Introduction.

Johan Norberg – The Klein Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Polemics