[Marxism] Naomi Klein responds to critics of "Shock Doctrine"

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

Published on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
One Year After the Publication of The Shock Doctrine, A Response to  
the Attacks

by Naomi Klein

Exactly one year ago, I set off on a book tour to promote The Shock  
Doctrine. The plan was for it to last three months, quite long by  
publishing standards. Twelve months later, it is still going [1]. But  
this has been no ordinary book tour. Everywhere I have traveled- from  
Calgary, Alberta to Cochabamba, Bolivia - I have heard more stories  
about how shock strategies have been used to impose unwanted pro- 
corporate policies. I have also been part of stimulating debates and  
discussions about how the current round of crises - oil, food,  
financial markets, heavy weather -- can be transformed into  
opportunities for progressive change.

And there have been other kinds of responses too. The Shock Doctrine  
is a direct attack on the intellectuals and institutions that have  
disseminated corporatist ideology around the world. When I wrote the  
book, I fully expected to get hit back. Yet for eight months  
following publication, there was an eerie silence from the "free- 
market" ideologues. Sure, a few dismissive reviews appeared in the  
business press [2]. But not a word from the Washington think tanks  
that I name in the book. Nothing from the University of Chicago  
economics department. Even The Economist magazine, which used to  
attack me gleefully and with great regularity, never mentioned the  
book in print. An American television producer, who was trying to  
find an opponent to debate me on-air, confided that she had never  
been turned down so consistently. "They seem to think if they ignore  
you, you'll go away."

Well, the silence from the right has certainly been broken. In recent  
months, several articles and reports have come out claiming to debunk  
my thesis. The most prominent are a "background paper" [3] published  
by The Cato Institute, extended into a full length book in Swedish  
(!), and a lengthy essay [4] in The New Republic by senior editor  
Jonathan Chait.

Several readers have written to this site [5] asking me to respond to  
these attacks, if only to help them defend the book more effectively.  
I resisted at first (clinging to my summer vacation...) but I  
appreciate the feedback and several points do need correcting. Since  
the reports by Cato and The New Republic - though purporting to come  
from radically different points on the political spectrum - share  
some marked similarities, I've decided to tackle them together. Here  
goes.

Full: <http://www.commondreams.org/print/32006>

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