THE SHOCK DOCTRINE – The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

“At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater. After a powerful tsunami devastates the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts. New Orleans’s residents, still scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be reopened.”

I am so excited to know Naomi Klein, the author of No Logo has a new book coming out next month. Many years ago, after I read No Logo, then saw the documentary, my perception of capitalism, brands and branding, advertising and capitalism all came into question for me. This awareness became the motivation behind my desire to focus on “conscious branding” as my focus and distilled in me a sense of responsibility. Oh, enough about me. As I mentioned her new book is scheduled to be released in September. Looks like a winner. Here’s advance praise from some of today’s greatest social icons (snipped directly from her site):

“Naomi Klein has written a brilliant, brave and terrifying book. It’s nothing less than the secret history of what we call the ‘Free Market.’ It should be compulsory reading.”

Arundhati Roy

author of The God of Small Things

“Naomi Klein is an investigative reporter like no other. She roams the continents with eyes wide open and her brain operating at full speed, finding connections we never thought of, and patterns which eluded us. She shows us, in clear and elegant language, how catastrophes — natural ones like Katrina, unnatural ones like war — become opportunities for a savage capitalism, calling itself “the free market,” to privatize everything in sight, bringing huge profits to some, misery for others. To ensure the safety of such a system, it becomes necessary to constrict freedom, to assault human rights. The torture chambers for some then match the torturing of the larger society. This is a brilliant book, one of the most important I have read in a long time.”

Howard Zinn

author of A People’s History of the United States

“The Shock Doctrine is the damning Truth Commission the powerful have sought to keep locked away in the Guantanamo prison of history. Naomi Klein has smashed the padlock of secrecy and revealed the violent contents within. She masterfully exposes the dark roots of the staples of today’s borderless bloody war: torture, economic terror, disaster profiteering and international conquest. Klein traces the doctrine of shock, applied across the globe from Latin America to the Soviet Union to Africa and the Arab world, through more than half a century of refining by evil geniuses who have used the poor of the world as their lab rats. The Shock Doctrine will change forever how you see the epic battle between the haves and the have nots. This is the defining, covert history of our era. This extraordinary expose is the work of a journalist embedded not with the militaries of the powerful, but with the poor, the tortured and those who fight for justice against all odds.”

Jeremy Scahill

author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army

How could you not be excited about the Shock Doctrine? Pre-order your copy today.