The Shock Doctrine

Talking about Milton Friedman’s ideas, the godfather of modern capitalism, the capitalism of disasters, who was mentored by American presidents and British prime ministers, and ruling minorities in Russia, Polish finance ministers, and tyrants from third-world countries. His school produced the most prominent thinkers of neoconservatism and neoliberalism, who still have a strong and effective influence on U.S. policy. It analyzes how Friedman built his economic and political ideas on natural disasters, military invasions, and coups. And how he and his team hoard ideas, waiting for catastrophe solutions under the slogan of privatization or death. It mentions how he made Chile the first field of his experiments, working as an advisor to dictator Augusto Pinochet, advising him to exploit the shock of the coup in the mid-seventies. His ideas did not spare Sri Lanka, Britain, and Yugoslavia. His methods extended to China after the shock caused by the Tiananmen Square massacre and the arrest of thousands there; his proposals reached Latin American and African countries. Following the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia, leaving hundreds of thousands of victims, Friedman’s economic approach was to manage beach tenders to turn them into tourist resorts. After the September 11 events, disaster capitalism, represented by the Bush administration, handed over the war on terror to Halliburton and Blackwater. Iraq was also prepared for after its invasion with a comprehensive privatization campaign and the promotion of free market reliance. Even Hurricane Katrina was not spared from Friedman’s ideas when he made his famous statement: most of the schools in New Orleans were destroyed, and the children’s homes they attend. This is a tragedy, but it is also an opportunity for radical reforms in the education system. The book may not explain what happens with natural disasters; but it certainly reveals with documents and evidence the malicious intentions behind the invasions, coups, and massacres happening around the world!!