The Shock Doctrine

Noami Klein proposes that neo-liberalism advances its agenda via The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Her thesis is that a real or perceived shock to a society enables unpopular changes to be forced through whether the changes are relevant to the problem or not.

I think Klein misses a very important application of the Shock Doctrine at the enterprise level. This occurs whenever a reorganisation occurs and there are redundancies.

People are disorientated, and they are susceptible to whatever hocus-pocus management consultants come up with to justify working harder and longer at soul-destroying jobs.

The current mantra is that change is inevitable. That is like saying pain is inevitable in a prison.

Workers are captive to the employment contract. As long as the current system persists, sadistic managers will continue to inflict pain on their employees.

But as Klein points out, shock wears off, and memory returns. The problem is what happens then?