How Shock Therapy Makes Money

Tonight Naomi Klein spoke about her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, and discussed the ways governments exploit countries in crisis. She explained her theory in very human terms and used examples of shock treatment to illustrate her point. The premise is that during a time of crisis there is overwhelming opportunity to leveraged the situation to one's advantage in the interest of making a profit. She wasted no time citing Iraq, New Orleans, 9/11, & Sri Lanka as examples of the ways that contractors seize an opportunity to profit from others misfortunes.

Alfonso Cuaron created a short to help Naomi express some of her ideas. The video references CIA torture manuals that explain the use of psychological and physical shock to induce a form of regression to control and manipulate their subjects. Naomi goes on to parallel this effect on an individual to collective traumas experienced by entire countries. The short ends with a type of public service announcement: "The best way to arm yourself is by understanding what is happening and why: 'Information is shock resistance, arm yourself.'"