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The Shock Doctrine (2009)

An investigation of "disaster capitalism", based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance.

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Drawing surprising connections between market methods and CIA torture techniques developed in the 1950s, the film explores how well-known events of the recent past have been theaters for the shock doctrine, from Pinochet's coup in Chile, to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, to the war in Iraq today.

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ewen Cameron ...
Himself (archive footage) (as Dr. Ewen Cameron)
Janine Huard ...
Herself
...
Herself
...
Himself (archive footage) (as Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
...
Himself
...
Himself (archive footage)
Donald O. Hebb ...
Himself - Doctor (as Donald Hebb)
...
Himself (archive footage)
Edward Korry ...
Himself - Former US Ambassador to Chile
...
Himself (archive footage)
...
Herself (archive footage)
Orlando Letelier ...
Himself (archive footage)
Michael Townley ...
Himself
Arnold Harberger ...
Himself
Jorge Rafael Videla ...
Himself (archive footage) (as Jorge Videla)

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Storyline

Naomi Klein gives a lecture tracing the confluence of ideas about modifying behavior using shock therapy and other sensory deprivation and modifying national economics using the "shock treatment" of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School. She moves chronologically: Pinochet's Chile, Argentina and its junta, Yeltsin's Russia, Bush and Bremer's Iraq. A trumped-up villain provides distraction or rationalization: Marxism, the Falklands, nuclear weapons, terrorists; and, always, there is a great shift of money and power from the many to the few. News footage, a narrator, and talking heads back up Klein's analysis. She concludes on a note of hope. Written by <[email protected]>

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Documentary

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3 March 2010 (France)  »

Also Known As:

Doktrina soka  »

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Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Naomi Klein: A state of shock is something that happens to us not only when something bad happens. It's what happens to us when we lose our narrative, when we lose our story, when we become disoriented.
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Connections

References The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) See more »

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original soundtrack excerpts
from Fargo (1996)
Written by Carter Burwell
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The Extremes
9 April 2013 | by (Minneapolis, USA) – See all my reviews

Obviously, the opinions about this powerful documentary will be sharply divided. Liberals, and proudly I am one of them, will approve and cheer, and conservatives will call it communist propaganda and other such drivel. I lived in both communist and capitalist society. With the incredible youthful passion I fought communism and it's limits on free speech and artistic expression. And over 22 years ago I immigrated to the USA. And, it was a sobering experience. There is a freedom of speech, nobody limits the artistic expression( mostly because nobody gives a damn about art-the dying form). And there is the most troubling of all for me. The mighty dollar, the only pertinent thing. It really is all about money. Everything else takes the back seat. The extremes of socialism didn't work, because repression doesn't last forever, but, on the other hand, the extremes of ruthless, greedy capitalism, do not work either. The culture of ME,ME,ME is ultimately barren and lonely, and the impoverished will eventually rise up in arms, and who wants that. Nobody reads the dusty volumes of history books. If they were, we might be living in a different world.


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