09.30.07
Mind control and Neoliberalism
It is strange that we have been discussing mind control, partly beginning with sillykitty’s concerns here, as I began to investigate, reaching the conclusion that beyond the ‘Manchurian Candidate’ myths there was in fact a crystallizing set of interrogation techniques. See this post on Padilla
Klein’s Shock Doctrine, to my surprise, picks up this theme in the first chapter and tells us that the CIA research (see Kubark Counterinlligence Interrogation, www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv) has been adopted by free market economists, et al, in the tactics of ’shock treatment’ economics. This sets the tone for the book, and Klein shows how the original techniques of the CIA (whose files on this were all destroyed) become a mystique of surprise attack economics plied by the epigones of the Chicago School. We are of course seeing this all come to light in the wake of 9/11, Abu Ghraib, and the rest of it. But its application to macroeconomic manipulations, the famous shock therapy from Pinochet to Jeffrey Sacks and Paul Bremer et co., is an acute revelation of Klein’s book.
We can’t just yawn anymore when these gangs start using these tactics on innocent populations where editorial gonzos slick the news stories with ‘freedom’ verbiage. The tactics are a form of piracy to reap the huge profits of ’shock therapy’ economics, while noone is watching, or quite aware of what is going on.
We need to be on full alert from now on whenever this brand of Neoliberalism gets in motion for more of its profits through crimes against humanity.