SHOCK DOCTRINE: A SECOND TAKE

For a long time, Naomi Klein’s provocative book Shock Doctrine has stood alone in my thoughts as something tyrants of all description but also by conservative radicals in the U.S. form of democracy use to justify severe actions that could not happen without the shock. This morning on Up w/Chris Hayes on MSNBC, another book came to the front. It was Why Nations Fail written by Daron Acemglu and James Robinson. What I found interesting is that Professor Acemglu mentioned passing the idea that the shock doctrine can apply to the masses. Klein treated the use of shocks of various discretions (war, environment, economic) as a function of just a small group of self-appointed elite. If laws prevent thousands of workers from earning a livable wage, working excessively long hours, or laboring in unsafe conditions, the workers eventually will react, although much more slowly and not as ruthlessly, to the shock by forcing the passage of legislation aimed at finding solutions. This eventuality puts the greedy conservative bloc in balance with the altruistic or liberal faction; thus, the citizenry restores the socially important Nash equilibrium. Unfortunately, in either case someone has to suffer. Perhaps Steven Pinker’s claim, made in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, that things are  getting better are true. We can only hope so.