At Cooper Union in New York City’s East Village, Eve Ensler introduced Naomi Klein but first praised Anthony Arnove of Haymarket books, the publisher of Naomi’s new book. For more on Eve see here. She described Haymarket books, going on 16 years, as “a gathering of great minds, activists, artists, visionaries, radicals struggling in the same progressive direction. It is exactly the publishing force we need now in a world where the commercial publishing industry is still terrified to push the necessary political boundaries and often acts to block the much needed revolutionary thought”.

Then Eve went on to remind the audience of the brilliant array of books Naomi has already written and went on to name her books, as a way to “rewire our brains”. “How often do I hear people say in conversation, That’s the Shock Doctrine at work. I think of ‘branding’, new neo -liberalism, the connection of capitalism and climate change. These books allow masses amounts of people that maybe, maybe they might not be bulldozed by the epic proportions of distortions of a world gone mad”.

NO Is Not Enough.

The introduction to No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need  says, “This is one attempt to uncover how we got to this surreal political moment. It is also an attempt to predict how, under cover of shocks and crises, it could get a lot worse. And it’s a plan for how, if we keep our heads, we might just be able to flip the script and arrive at a radically better future.”

Naomi Klein began by telling audience that she was making assumptions about them because they’re there on the first night. “You’re ready to cut to the chase”. She then went on to read from her book and “use the word shock to describe Donald Trump’s ‘election’ and the first months of his ‘Presidency’ and understandably so. His first week in office Trump signed a tsunami of ‘executive’ orders that had people reeling trying to keep up”.

“We have to question Not only Trump but, the values and systems that ineluctably produced him. The same values that have been playing out to destroy safety nets, explosion prison populations, normalize rape culture surging white supremacy, democracy destroying trade deals and rising seas. At the same time, perhaps it’s ok, healthy even, for us to be just a little bit shocked by Trump. Here’s why; the stories that produced him were always contested, were always other stories, one’s that insisted that money is not all that’s valuable. That all of our fates are intertwined with one another and with the health or the rest of the natural world”.

Hari Kondabolu, a comedian, did the interview with Naomi Klein and asked Naomi to explain the basics of the Shock Doctrine. “Explain it like you were explaining it to an unqualified comedian”. Naomi replied, “you have a masters degree and I’m a University drop out”.

“Shock doctrine is this phrase I came up with about 11 years ago when I was in Baghdad covering the U.S. invasion of the occupation of Iraq. this ‘strategy’ of using what the US military proudly calls Shock and Awe to pummel that country, and then exploiting this window of opportunity while Iraq was in chaos to push through what ‘economists’ proudly call Economic Shock Therapy until people told them to stop calling it that.”

“It was a phrase that was used to describe rapid fire restructuring of countries systematically in moments of shock and crisis if you looked at it. Then I started noticing it was happening in the after math of other shocks of other crisis like the Asian tsunami for instance in 2005. In Iraq, what they tried to do, use that window of opportunity to rapidly privatize Iraq’s economy, they brought in ‘economists’ and politicians from Russia to advise on how they did it in Russia, Russia was also called Economic Shock Therapy”.

I thought the presentation was well done and Naomi does very important work, I just don’t think it’s hard hitting enough out of fear of depressing people. We are living in very serious times and I just don’t feel that the public is stepping up enough and is prepared to take on what they will eventually be forced to take on in full force.

There are too many people suffering unimaginably and too many others sitting by complacently adjusting themselves to it instead of stepping up to it.

It’s easy to go to a talk, people need to “put their bodies into it” to use the words of former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and what I’ve been telling people for decades; people need to get fit or the vulnerable will continue to suffer.

I didn’t feel the sense of Urgency in her voice.

From the book synopsis:

Donald Trump’s takeover of the White House is a dangerous escalation in a world of cascading crises. His reckless agenda—including a corporate coup in government, aggressive scapegoating and warmongering, and sweeping aside climate science to set off a fossil fuel frenzy—will generate waves of disasters and shocks to the economy, national security, and the environment.

Acclaimed journalist, activist, and bestselling author Naomi Klein has spent two decades studying political shocks, climate change, and “brand bullies.” From this unique perspective, she argues that Trump is not an aberration but a logical extension of the worst, most dangerous trends of the past half-century—the very conditions that have unleashed a rising tide of white nationalism the world over. It is not enough, she tells us, to merely resist, to say “no.” Our historical moment demands more: a credible and inspiring “yes,” a roadmap to reclaiming the populist ground from those who would divide us—one that sets a bold course for winning the fair and caring world we want and need.

This timely, urgent book from one of our most influential thinkers offers a bracing positive shock of its own, helping us understand just how we got here, and how we can, collectively, come together and heal.