Moving Train Bookclub TAKE TWO: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

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This is the regular meeting of the Moving Train Bookclub.  Believe it or not!!!

It is also the semi-regular change of venue for Newport's own non-fiction peripatetic progressive book club. We will be returning to the Canyonway Bookstore/Restaurant Centro de Ayuda yet again.

The selection this month, really!, is Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine," the touching story of a homely military-industrial complex and the global superpower that loves it.

I appologize for getting the book and place wrong last time.  I don't know what came over me.

 

The book talks at some length about some CIA-funded brainwashing experiments involving LSD, ECS therapy and other strange things that were carried out during the 1950s in Montreal. I came across a BBC documentary that talks a bit about them. The experiments aren't the main focus of the documentary, but it may be of interest to see and hear some of the contemporary records. The relevant part begins around minute 40 in this clip.
There is also a very interesting segment that begins around 32:57, a little bit before the brain washing section. Its about the use of Bernay's techniques to overthrow Guatamala in 1952. Very interesting.

This is part two of a four part BBC documentary series, "The Century of the Self." It was first aired in 2002. For what its worth, I think "The Century of the Self" is a great documentary.  One of the best I've ever seen.  Ab fab!! 

I recommend watching the entire series. I think the first and fourth segments are the best and most enlightening. The series chronicles the nature, purpose, methods and effects of systematically applying the insights and methods from psychotherapy toward the shaping of public behavior.

But wait!! There's MORE!!!

Adam Curtis, the author of "The Century of the Self", made another important documentary for BBC called "The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear." Its a three parter. Here's a link to the first instalment. Like C of C, its eminently watchable, very informative and very troubling. It is also more relevant to the topic of Klein's book although it is about the exploitation of the fear by the paternalistic elite instead of the putative Shock Doctrine & Chicago School that Klein evokes.

To watch the other videos in the two series, just click on the "Google" button and that will take to Google Land where you will see links to the others in the series.

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When: January 13, 2010 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Where:

Centro de Ayuda
410 SW 9th St

Newport, OR

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