The Shock Doctrine

You might have read the piece in Salon the other day where John Dean laments the passing of the Republican Party as a positive, or, even, a non-damaging force in American life. The party he has known for forty years, and the party he says that his friends now know, is a hateful, entirely corrupt, and self-interested body composed of those who take revenge and those who fear having revenge taken upon them. Every current candidate for the presidency is "authoritarian" in an extreme and unAmerican way that Dean thinks would have in earlier decades been "corrected" by the political system, but the Republicans, according to Dean, have broken the political system precisely so that it won't correct them. Sounds like the financial markets, doesn't it?

Personally, I would have put things slightly differently. The Republican Party now seems to work like a gang, in which the most valued qualities in members are loyalty to the gang and the leader, obedience to authority, and violence toward outsiders. The gang is constantly having to prove its dominance, and so candidates for leadership vie with one another for the most tyrannical or violent rhetoric, rhetoric which simultaneously demonizes those who don't accept the authority of the gang and the leader and removes all rules and laws for the gang and the leader. No one is exempt from the wrath of the gang. In this case, the Republican party has now separated itself fairly clearly from the general American population, and as Americans support it less, they come to seem to the Republicans to be more and more the enemy. The far away enemy is one thing, in terms of threat (think Al Qaeda, Shiites, Sunnis) but the enemy close at hand is more threatening because their enmity is seen as a "betrayal."

I don't doubt Dean. I always thought that for a Republican, he had something of a conscience. What amazes me is that Republicans who are now exclaiming at what has happened to the Republican Party (and yes, I talked to my mother this morning) didn't see this coming. Everything, every value, that the Republicans have held up for my lifetime as desirable has been pointing us in this direction. As I've said before on the HuffPost, all of this is the necessary consequence of traditional Republican values, not an accidental byproduct. Or maybe I'll put it this way -- when you reject common humanity, value profits above people, practice sectarian religion, feel contempt for the choices of others, exalt wealth, conflate consumersim with citizenship, join exclusive clubs, daily practice unkindness rather than kindness, and develop theories, such as those of free market capitalism, that allow you to congratulate yourself morally for selfishness and short-sightedness, then being a gang member is in your future.

Speaking of Free Market Capitalism, John Dean should start reading Naomi Klein's new book, The Shock Doctrine, which is being published next week, simultaneously in the US and in Britain. As Karl Marx pointed out, history and politics are not only psychological, they are also material. This week, the Guardian is running not only four excerpts from Klein's book, but also several commentaries both disagreeing and agreeing with her thesis. Her thesis is this (and if I am slightly inaccurate, blame me, not Naomi): In the fifties and sixties in the US, at least two lines of thought converged. One was about how to change people's minds without leaving marks and the other was about what was the best way of organizing a given economy. The first grew out of experiments in psychological torture (whoops, I mean electrocshock therapy) run by Ewen Cameron in the late 1940s. The theory was that patients could be rid of mental illnesses by "regressing" them to an infantile state, attaining a "clean slate" upon which new patterns of behavior and thought would be etched. Cameron used both electroshock and powerful drugs to attain his clean slate, having no actual knowledge of the chemistry of the brain or how it works -- in other words, he was operating in accordance with a metaphor. The result of Cameron's experiments, for the patients, was often considerable loss of short term and even long term memory and a subsequent lifelong feeling of "blankness" on the part of the patients (apparently, later refinements of electroshock techniques have mitigated these effects). In the 1950s, the CIA redirected these techniques toward torture of political opponents, allegedly to find out information, but really to test the techniques themselves (hello, Jose Padilla!).

At the same time, Milton Friedman was coming up with the idea that if only an economy could be purified of any kind of restraints on the free market (for example labor unions or socialized medicine or history), then the free market would be able to perfectly gauge the value of any type of good or service, and therefore an economy would balance itself, and, most importantly, inflation would be controlled (also, as you can see, a metaphor, or, perhaps, an extended analogy).

According to Klein, it soon became apparent that all powerful shocks to a system had a similar effect, whether the system was a human body or a national body, and this was to temporarily disable the system's defenses. The US government, the CIA, and the free market economists began to act on this insight, to collude in larger experiments. The first of these was the right wing coup, in Chile, led by Augusto Pinochet, in 1973. At the time, Chile had a functioning leftish government and economy, and the voters had already rejected Friedman's pure free market troika: privatization of government functions, an end to social spending, and deregulation.The new economy was dependent upon outside investors and highly profitable to them -- let's call that the allure of globalization. Pinochet set about instilling terror in the population (that's the shock therapy) using death squads, exemplary killings, and torture. Taking advantage of this, the economists installed the new free market way of doing things within days of the coup. But Friedman's ideas did not work -- inflation rose. In the eighties, the Chilean government tried again, this time by inducing a profound economic crash -- essentially impoverishing the populace in order to bring them to heel. Ultimately, the Chilean "miracle" (Friedman's term) did nothing for the population, but it did enrich the top ten per cent and put 45% below the poverty line. It turns out that as far as the economists were concerned, this was a good thing.

The Shock Doctrine traces what the US, the CIA, the economists, the Neocons, and the multinational corporations learned from the Chilean experiment and subsequent ones (Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Poland, Russia, China, England) and finally makes its way to Iraq (this is a 590 page book, and the print is small). Essentially, they learned that a small economy is easier to "regress" than a large one, that the shock has to be brutal, and that the free market doesn't work as Friedman said it would (automatically assigning appropriate value), but that it sure does make a few people rich beyond their wildest dreams, and that these people were Friedman's (and his students') benefactors and paymasters. They also learned to lie lie lie in order to sell what amounts to a program of inhuman greed to voters who have other needs, wishes, and ideas.

For our purposes, the more interesting section of Klein's book is about Iraq, where she traveled in the first year after the invasion, and this section forms part of her series of posts at the Guardian. She believes that the Iraq War was intended to not only steal Iraqi oil, but also to impose a radical free market on an unwilling populace, and that that was what was behind the installation of Bremer as the capo of Iraqi reconstruction. She believes that, thanks to the resistance of the Iraqis and their deep resentment at being used and exploited by the Americans, this effort has failed. However, a parallel effort, to shock the US economy into absolute deregulation, privatization, and an end to social spending, has been and is succeeding. What this amounts to is the fleecing of the American taxpayer in order to enrich the war making industries. The byproduct, as in Chile, is the gutting of the rule of law and the American political system as we have known it. Why did Bush and Cheney go to war? Well, where do they get their fortunes? The Shock Doctrine works perfectly for them. As for that 45% below the poverty line, well, once the globalizing manufacturers exported the well-paying US jobs, then the globalizing financiers moved in and sold the newly impoverished working class a few sub-prime mortgages guaranteed to take whatever else they had. Then the financiers screamed for a bailout, and Bernanke gave it to them. The free market, you might say, is working perfectly now, at least according to its shock principles.

So, John Dean, stop wondering what happened to your fellow Republicans. They embarked, knowingly in many cases, unknowingly in some cases, with utter indifference in still other cases, upon the destruction of the common good. They began doing this in the Cold War and kept up with it when it turned out to benefit them economically. Some of them did this because they were fearful and aggressive by nature, and hurting those outside their own families and clubs felt good, or reassuring. Some did it for money. Some did it for "patriotism." Some did it for religion and some did it out of pure cussedness, but they did it, and they did it over time.

Klein ends her book on a hopeful note -- in many places such as Chile and Lebanon, the people have learned from their experiences -- they are cannier and more resistant to the shocks administered to them by Bushco and their own ruling classes. Having endured "Disaster Capitalism" for several decades, they understand their own self-interests better and aren't as easy to fool. I would like to be as hopeful. The question, as always, with Bush and Cheney, is how far are they willing to go? And, is anyone willing to stop them? From John Dean's article, it doesn't sound as though it is going to be the Republicans.

Comments

[Honest George]

I won't be able to read the book due to my limited education but I would like to comment on Mr. Dean.He was very honest during the Watergate hearings. And besides the Beautiful woman sitting behind him would never be associated with a sleazebag liar

[Lane]

WooHoo! Great article!! Where have you been??? I have missed your input!!! Good to have you back to read!!!!!

[janmB]

Its only since the Bush--family came into power that the republican party-also changed putting party ahead of country.
The Bush takeover came at the precise time the neocons long-planning to get rid of social benefits and to bring workers to their knees praying for work and to make more of the rich-- billionaires.
The poorest in our country helped the rich elect these republicans and the poorest-- still don't recognize the rich kick them in the butt then laugh at them all the way to the bank.

[mamacat]

Thank you for the blog.

I hope I live long enough to see what happens to the Republican Party. There haven't been enough decent Republicans willing to reject the evil ways of Bush and Rove. It may very well happen that the American people will just let the GOP die a peaceful death, and come up with a new party. It's too bad, because for its first 50 years, in the 19th century, the GOP was a very progressive political party. They stood against slavery and were in favor of a just income tax, based on how much one was able to pay, not how much one was able to bribe. They used to believe that an aristocracy should not be allowed to control government.

It seems that with time, they have turned full circle, and have, at the national level at least, abandoned all pretense at moral behaviour.

[jlworrall]

Wouldn't it be a shock (to them) if when the new Democratic Pres takes over that he/she charge all these ass hats with war crimes... I think it appropriate.

[realpolitic]

John Dean wrote a very interesting book on authoritarian personalities and the Republican party. He raised the point that research indicates they are often out of touch with themselves so they can trumpet family values, while at the same time, as Newt Gingrich did, tell his wife he was going to divorce her as she lay in her hospital bed with a serious illness.

The conservative mindset attracts authoritarians. They like a rigid hierarchy in which direction comes from the top. Very little information flows from the bottom to those at the top as the Bush administration illustrates. Conservatives and authoritarians demand a loyalty to doctrine and punish those who dissent or raise objections. Many of their ideas are exclusionary. They create an 'us vs. them' feeling of persecution, even when they control the executive and judiciary. Republicans today are very much like a gang who does show a violence to outsiders and does not tolerate internal dissent. The leader of the gang seems to be bound by no rules or laws. God help us!

[mexamerican]

wonderful article. dead on, jane.

[ld]

Hi Again Jane - One other comment if you're reading this far.

I've also noticed what these authoritarian creatures have done to our country over the recent years. The irony that I most like to point out to people is that the greed-heads have demonized kindness, totally an amazing trick! But they've done a lot of it in name of Christianity and Christ, who may have been the greatest advocate of kindness to ever walk this planet. Don McLean's line about "Satan laughing with delight" occurs . . .

[Iownpeterbilt]

I too think Martial Law is very probable, and I wonder what will happen when the transportation system shuts down. The almost rich in their gated communities will be as vulnerable to starvation as those of us in our small rural towns. I calculate that the average super market would sell out in mere hours.

I have been telling everyone who would listen for fifty+ years to NEVER VOTE for an INCUMBENT. Let people go to D C for one term,
then get them back home before they get on some corporate BRIBE list [reelection funds]...

If only a few million would do this, the mess in D C would correct, if it's not too late now

[Jan12th]

Great job Jane! You're getting closer to the truth about why we are where we are. Keep digging...­.it's only dirt!

[julianne]

Sure, there a dozen Republicans in Washington that aren't corporate fascists, so what? The Republican Party isn't a viable political party for any nation. You can see that all around you. I give dollars to mentally ill citizens starving in the streets on a daily basis because of the Republican Party. The Republicans wouldn't even attempt to arbitrate for lower drug costs for our elder citizens. Do you know that the pharmaceutical companies in Europe practically were the Third Reich? Do you know that our Republican President's grandfather was one of the major financiers of Adoph Hitler? Republicans just tried to steal your Social Security and give all your money-for-nothing to their white trash hedge fund supporters who have now also wrecked the housing industry. Do you think Alan Greenspan and his boss, David Rockefeller vote Democrat? Have you ever read the tracts written by the Rockefellers, what they really think of the American people? Do you know who funds the American Enterprise Institute? Do you think the Duponts, Carghills, Morgans, and the toxic scum that own Monsanto vote Democrat? We have a dangerously attenuated, colononized, and hollowed-out economy primarily because of Republicans. The Drug War was, for the most part, invented by Republicans. Our largest penal colony in the world is to a significant extent privatized and run by Republicans. The U.S. has the worst disparity of income of all the Western industrial democracies because of the Republicans. Republicans refuse to act in consensus 'for the welfare of the people and the good of the nation'. The security and human progress of our posterity doesn't even enter their minds. Republicans put the rights and power of private cartels ahead of the long term economic and environmental security of the American people at every turn. Because of the Iraq invasion, the torture, the war profiteering and the globalized rape of our economic lives the Republican Party should be disbanded and destroyed. The Republican Party is the party of American Corporate Fascism. If you vote Republican then you ought to go to hell.

[CornellRedneck]

Wrong. You give dollars to the mentally ill on the street because of dear old JFK, not the Republican's. Either you're to young to remember or don't want to remember that Kennedy emptied the asylums because of the scandalist "snakepit" associations with mental health care back then. PLUS, as a side note, his sister was in an asylum. Perhaps it was the guilt, but in any event he tossed all the inmates out in the name of "civil rights". Sadly, those unfortunates basically have to fend for themselves-- except for *limited* help from non-profits like the Salvation Army, soup kitchens and state funded Arc NGOs. But they are FREE, aren't they?

Place blame where it lies. This disgrace is the result of the Dems.

[rmc53x]

Mr. CornellRedneck, I’m old enough to remember that it was Reagan who emptied the mental hospitals when he was governor of California

[ld]

Incredible analysis, Jane! I had very much agreed with John Dean, and I still do and he's great, but you've taken the analysis of what's wrong with a greed/auth­oritarian-­based outlook to a whole level.

[iisopen]

Jane,
I am also very happy to see more of your work.

"Everything, every value, that the Republicans
have held up for my lifetime as desirable has been pointing us in this direction.­"

These are my feelings also.

I await President Manque's next move.

[Dap]

Dear Ms. Smiley,

You haven't lost your touch, that's why I and many others heart ya SOoooooooooo much!

I must say, the psychological aspect of your post is excellent, ( it's my innate gift/blessing, understanding the human mind ) I have much less understanding of economics, but it seems about right, I value your perspective on the subject.

It relly is Grrrrrrrreat! To have ya back. Agape.

[Dap]

Dear Ms. Smiley,

Hi, stranger! :) I'm not gonna comment on your post just yet, I just wanted to let ya know that you were missed. Glad to see ya back.

Agape.