The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

“For more than three decades, [Milton] Friedman and his powerful followers had been perfecting this very strategy: waiting for a major crisis, then selling off pieces of the state to private players while citizens were still reeling from the shock, then quickly making the ‘reforms’ permanent.”

In this quote, Naomi Klein defines the “shock doctrine” that she critiques throughout the book. She places the word “reforms” between quotation marks to emphasize her critique in this sentence. The use of quotation marks here implies skepticism, suggesting that the policy changes are not designed to improve the economy but rather to enrich the wealthy via Exploitation of Crises for Economic Gain.

“Fervent believers in the redemptive powers of shock, the architects of the American-British invasion imagined that their use of force would be so stunning, so overwhelming, that Iraqis would go into a kind of suspended animation, much like the one described in the Kubark manual. In that window of opportunity, Iraq’s invaders would slip in another set of shocks—these ones economic—which would create a model free-market democracy on the blank slate that was post-invasion Iraq.

But there was no blank slate, only rubble and shattered, angry people—who, when they resisted, were blasted with more shocks, some of them based on those experiments performed on Gail Kastner all those years ago.”

In this passage, Klein lays out a central argument of the work. She argues that there is a literal and metaphorical connection between the electroshock torture used by the CIA and the shock therapy used by neoliberal economists. The literal connection is how US-UK forces intended to use violence to “shock” the Iraqi people into compliance during the invasion of Iraq. They then intended to economically “shock” them with neoliberal policies. If Iraqis resisted, they could then be tortured with literal electroshocks. This passage illustrates the dense, interconnected layers of the electroshock imagery and practice in the work.

“Friedman’s mission, like Cameron’s, rested on a dream of reaching back to a state of ‘natural’ health, when all was in balance, before human interferences created distorting patterns. Where Cameron dreamed of returning the human mind to that pristine state, Friedman dreamed of depatterning societies, of returning them to a state of pure capitalism, cleansed of all interruptions—government regulations, trade barriers and entrenched interests […] Cameron used electricity to inflict his shocks; Friedman’s tool of choice was policy—the shock treatment approach he urged on bold politicians for countries in distress.”

In this passage, Klein lays out how economist Milton Friedman envisioned the Exploitation of Crises for Economic Gain. She compares his vision with that of Dr.