Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument:
historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and
economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously
implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times.
As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just
some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society,
and coming soon to a disaster area near you.

"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq'' civil war, a new law is unveiled that
will allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves. Immediately
following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly outsources the running
of the 'War on Terror' to Halliburton and Blackwater. After a tsunami wipes
out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to
tourist resorts. New Orleans residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina,
discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be
re-opened." Klein not only kicks butt, she names names, notably economist
Milton Friedman and his radical Chicago School of the 1950s and 60s which she
notes "produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers
whose influence is still profound in Washington today." Stand up and take
a bow, Donald Rumsfeld.

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