Reading Makes Me Sick

I have this habit of reading things that not only enlighten me, but make me nauseous. On my plane trip from hell, I finished reading an ARC that I picked up at BEA, The Ghost In Love by Jonathan Carroll (due out September 30. My critique? Starts off fresh then devolves into a confusing Freudian treatise without a satisfying resolution). I spent two days in Myrtle Beach hoping to get to a bookstore to pick up a new tome for the jaunt home, but never got there. Which left me with the Hudson News kiosk at the Myrtle Beach airport. Not exactly a wide range of books. However, they did have Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism in paperback, so I picked it up. I'm 100 pages into the 598 page book and I want my mommy.

As is the case with most Americans, I'm hazy on any American history pre-WWII, and just about ignorant about American history post-WWII. And as for global politics? Forget about it. Is there any country other than the U.S.? I mean, there's England, Spain, and France. We know that because they are the three countries that founded this one. There's Germany who started all those wars and killed Jews. There's Africa -- which technically is a continent, but let's not quibble -- where we captured and enslaved people. There's Canada above us with some sort've pinko health care, and Mexico below us which should do a better job about keeping it's citizens within its borders. And there's Russia and China which are bad because they're Communists. Or were Communist? Or might still be Communists? But are somehow now making money...? I don't know. No one's quite sure. And there's Iraq. But don't ask me to point it out on a map. There is a very good reason for this blithe disregard for the past and the World Order. It's freaking scary, people! When you know stuff, there is this vague feeling that you're required to do something about it. That you're somehow responsible for trying to make it right. The Shock Doctrine is a book about economics and how political and natural disasters open up the door to implementing new forms of economic theory to take root. Basically, it's a great opportunity to use a real life society to test an idea that a computer model said could work...if all the variables went exactly like you told the computer they would (which is rarely the case when you put those fallible humans into the mix). Now, I'm not into economics. I know nothing about it and never thought I would find it interesting. However, I think Ms. Klein is just brilliant, and she's one of those people who is able to break down complex processes into understandable information. I appreciate that in my writers. And after completing the first 100 pages of this book, I know now who General Pinochet is (a name that would come up on NPR at times and I always assumed he as a dictator because, you know, General kinda gives it away) and what happened in Chile for the last thirty years. I may even be able to pick Chile out on a map. Thanks, Naomi! However, I'm now also in the know about FDR's economic policies, what the New Deal really was and how it helped fuel the American Dream of the 50s, and how Reagan and Bush2 systematically destroyed all of it. In money terms, we are back to the 1920s. You know? Back before the stock market crashed in 1929 and our inflation soared and unemployment hit an all time high? Those 1920s. Who said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it"? Whoever he was needs to come moderate the next political debate...not Rick Warren. (What the hell was that about, anyway?) I'm also in the know about how our CIA was compromised by Big Business objectives in the 60s and how our military is cracking open the floor for American enterprise to expand into the Middle East now and how they will be required to stay there to protect the McDonalds and the Foot Lockers in the future. (Which I always suspected, but it's nice when a respected writer with a Ph.D. does the research and footnotes it.) Oh, globalization -- a game the whole country can pay for!

According to the reviews and the jacket copy, in the next 498 pages I will be learning about Russia and China and more about New Orleans which seems to have been economically raped after Katrina. By the time I finish the book, it'll be in time for the presidential debates. Can't. Wait. I'll be howling for blood and Madame Guillotine. Viva La Revolicion!

For an interesting, quick and easy economic policy read on the two presidential nominees, I suggest Robert Reich's blog on McCainomics versus Obamanomics posted July 22.