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ProfessorPlum

(11,252 posts)
Tue May 3, 2016, 02:06 PM May 2016

One of the most chilling details in Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine",

which is chock-full of chilling details, is the social engineering done on South American nations in the 1970s that are stripped of their socialist democratic governments and replaced by tender mercies of the American capitalists and their fascist allies. In Chile, in Argentina, in Bolivia, big business and the United States government destroy the social fabric of their societies and replace it with political repression, torture, militarized enforcement, rapacious and unfettered capitalism.

In order to keep this regime in place, these governments need to destroy people who would help the poor, who encourage others to be kind to their fellow humans, who are humanists and humanitarians and kind-hearted clerics. The people of these countries are encouraged to turn on, and turn in, the people among them who are the best of humanity, who feed the hungry and clothe the sick, who care about workers oppressed into wage slavery, who stand up against this crush of capital.

It was horrible to read about, and I can only imagine how horrible it must have been to live through. To basically have all the good, and kind, and caring people in your society bullied into silence, or tortured, or killed, to keep them for sticking up for each other and everyone else.

And while I don't want to draw the analogy too far . . . this is just a primary race after all, and one where the person who wins is likely to be the person who was likely to win from the very beginning . . . I would caution my fellow humans and DUers about the tone with which we treat the goals of helping our fellow citizens. And the tone with which we treat politicians that embody and encourage those goals.

Sanders has a history of fighting for social justice, of not "playing the game" of the rest of corrupted Washington, of setting an example of standing up to the corporate powers and creating an atmosphere of solidarity for Americans to copy and thrive in.

He is to be admired for his stances, and especially for his trying to turn the race into a contest of who can treat their fellow Americans better. That is a contest that everyone would win.

This ugly mocking of him for tilting against the corrupt windmill of our government and the rot at the top of the Democratic party - for daring to challenge the establishment - chills me. It echos the persecution of the humanitarians in South America, of the practitioners of social justice, and the causes of kindness and fairness.

Sanders' fight for the nomination may ultimately fail . . but his ideas are best handled with reverence and respect. For they encompass the treatment that we would all wish to have from our countrymen and women.

"The Shock Doctrine" is a must-read for everyone on Democratic Underground.

28 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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One of the most chilling details in Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine", (Original Post) ProfessorPlum May 2016 OP
"Status-quo Underground" hahaha RadiationTherapy May 2016 #1
What is described in your OP is allowed to happen at DU between faction of posters. PufPuf23 May 2016 #2
I actually find the tone around here not much worse than in 2004 ProfessorPlum May 2016 #4
Totally agree about the "mocking of the ideas of social and economic justice". PufPuf23 May 2016 #7
It's that mocking of the ideas of social and economic justice.. frylock May 2016 #14
Make no mistake: The One Percent is at DEFCON 2 RufusTFirefly May 2016 #19
The chickens are coming home and roosting now nadinbrzezinski May 2016 #3
Excellent book, highly recommend! deathrind May 2016 #5
Thank you ProfessorPlum felix_numinous May 2016 #6
Naomi Klein and the late Chalmers Johnson. mmonk May 2016 #8
Haven't read Johnson's stuff yet, though it is on my list ProfessorPlum May 2016 #9
Sanders is a 25 year member of the establishment. He doesn't get many bills passed. Lucinda May 2016 #10
Sanders is known as The Amendment King ProfessorPlum May 2016 #11
But thank you ProfessorPlum May 2016 #12
But naming a post office is "getting things done" farleftlib May 2016 #20
Kicked and recommended. Uncle Joe May 2016 #13
Just a side note: Pope Francis witnessed all of that and it is jwirr May 2016 #15
I fear the same thing ProfessorPlum May 2016 #16
I believe this too farleftlib May 2016 #24
Unfortunately true. jwirr May 2016 #25
I have thought that having read The Shock Doctrine is a good predictor lostnfound May 2016 #17
I'll bet you are quite right ProfessorPlum May 2016 #18
This message was self-deleted by its author carolinayellowdog May 2016 #26
Excellent OP farleftlib May 2016 #21
I would also add that her new book, This Changes Everything, is similarly important riderinthestorm May 2016 #22
pm kick! nt riderinthestorm May 2016 #23
KICK! DJ13 May 2016 #27
Now THAT is the kind of post that 1st drew me to DU! I've missed seeing them, too. ebayfool May 2016 #28

PufPuf23

(8,687 posts)
2. What is described in your OP is allowed to happen at DU between faction of posters.
Tue May 3, 2016, 02:12 PM
May 2016

Disappointing after all these years.

ProfessorPlum

(11,252 posts)
4. I actually find the tone around here not much worse than in 2004
Tue May 3, 2016, 02:17 PM
May 2016

that was kind of awful, even with Kerry wrapping up the nomination fairly quickly in the process.

What I can't abide is the mocking of the ideas of social and economic justice.

PufPuf23

(8,687 posts)
7. Totally agree about the "mocking of the ideas of social and economic justice".
Tue May 3, 2016, 02:46 PM
May 2016

What reminds me of the OP is that there is a cadre of Hillary Clinton supporters that do nothing more than disrupt and abuse other posters without little repercussion.

I have an anecdote which evidences my own naïve nature about DU.

Weeks ago there was a thread in the Hillary Clinton group about a "hide" post by the OP in GDP posted by a prominent and often rude supporter of Hillary Clinton.

The content and claim was that the alert was a gang alert and that the OP was going to admin to have jury privileges removed from the alerter.

On April 23 I had an interaction with the same poster. I made an extremely rare by me PM to the poster and in good manners told the poster I was the alerter of the HCG thread about the abuse of the alert system.

I noted:

1. Only the 3rd alert I had ever made (so no pattern of abuse and maybe I was a bit thin skinned the day of the alert).

2. I did not have personal private relations with anyone at DU (in PM or elsewhere)

3. I had been on many juries and had been fair: measuring on TOS, context of the rudeness, and way out of bounds claims.

4. I noted I had only ever had 2 posts hidden under this screen name plus one under my former screen name circa 2003-2004.

The poster asked in response which thread in HCG and I sent the link.

I have never been asked to be on a jury since.

I never abused the alert system and went out of my way to be fair on juries regardless of my personal beliefs.

I have been upfront about my long term negative opinion about Hillary Clinton.

frylock

(34,825 posts)
14. It's that mocking of the ideas of social and economic justice..
Tue May 3, 2016, 04:42 PM
May 2016

that make this primary worse than any other. Everything those of us on the left suspected for years is on full display.

RufusTFirefly

(8,812 posts)
19. Make no mistake: The One Percent is at DEFCON 2
Wed May 4, 2016, 11:44 AM
May 2016

In 1933, Robert Sterling Clark (aka "the millionaire lieutenant), the heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, was so threatened by FDR's policies that he was willing to spend half of his fortune in order to save the other half.

Luckily, Clark underestimated the resolve of his former commander, Smedley Darlington Butler, as well as that of Roosevelt himself.

felix_numinous

(5,198 posts)
6. Thank you ProfessorPlum
Tue May 3, 2016, 02:37 PM
May 2016

It has been equally chilling for me to observe just how many people follow power like moths to a flame, and then turn on their fellows.

I think it is the undercurrent of climate change that is causing some people to think this current power structure will keep them safe. It is a primitive instinct.

mmonk

(52,589 posts)
8. Naomi Klein and the late Chalmers Johnson.
Tue May 3, 2016, 03:13 PM
May 2016

The best authors at showing what is hiding in plain sight to Americans.

ProfessorPlum

(11,252 posts)
9. Haven't read Johnson's stuff yet, though it is on my list
Tue May 3, 2016, 03:58 PM
May 2016

I'm fascinated by the things that we "know", that we don't really know. Things known but never discussed.

Lucinda

(31,170 posts)
10. Sanders is a 25 year member of the establishment. He doesn't get many bills passed.
Tue May 3, 2016, 04:16 PM
May 2016

Less than 10 percent of his sponsored bills over the last three years have had bi-partisan sponsorship. That doesn't strike me as a as someone who is a leader or a fighter.

ProfessorPlum

(11,252 posts)
11. Sanders is known as The Amendment King
Tue May 3, 2016, 04:25 PM
May 2016

On the hill, because he is constantly adding amendments to bills, working with Democrats and Republicans, to make them better serve the American public. He's extremely effective for someone who avoids the corruption of the system.

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
15. Just a side note: Pope Francis witnessed all of that and it is
Tue May 3, 2016, 06:00 PM
May 2016

very likely why he says the things he does about social justice.

The same part of our society that are trying to turn us into a corporatist oligarchy are the ones who did those things in South America. I don't believe that they are going to treat us any better if they are handed total control.

Our vote this time is vital.

 

farleftlib

(2,125 posts)
24. I believe this too
Wed May 4, 2016, 08:11 PM
May 2016

Corporations have no allegiance to a country and definitely not to its people other
than how they can serve the bottom line. We see that for-profit wars are being waged
by the United States, the social safety net is being shredded, our voting machines are
privately owned by the Republicans, the middle class is shrinking and the stratification
between the haves and have-nots is at historic levels. Believe me when I say I think
we are totally expendable to the elite.

Response to lostnfound (Reply #17)

 

farleftlib

(2,125 posts)
21. Excellent OP
Wed May 4, 2016, 12:31 PM
May 2016

What the Clintons are doing in Haiti is a prime example of the shock doctrine in practice.

K & R

 

riderinthestorm

(23,272 posts)
22. I would also add that her new book, This Changes Everything, is similarly important
Wed May 4, 2016, 12:43 PM
May 2016

Maybe even more so this election cycle since this book singles out capitalism as the primary driver of climate change.

Big K and R!

ebayfool

(3,411 posts)
28. Now THAT is the kind of post that 1st drew me to DU! I've missed seeing them, too.
Wed May 4, 2016, 09:57 PM
May 2016

Thank you for this - it's a wonderful, reasoned and compassionate read.

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