A constituent – a local Conservative association member – has kindly given me a copy of Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism after a discussion about the nature of a free society. I have wrestled with how to respond for a while, after being asked whether I have read it yet.
What little I could bear at first sitting established that the book is an anti-capitalist rant; I realised that I cannot answer briefly. Given the many social, environmental, fiscal and economic problems we face, the imperfect and imperfectible nature of humanity, self-interest, imperfect knowledge, history and present levels of state intervention, what is to be done?
If each of us has a book within, I should get on with it. In the meantime, a flavour of my inspiration may be found in my book reviews and my Amazon bookstore.
(And what a serendipitous moment for iTunes to select Ray LaMontagne’s Trouble…)
Yes! Please write a book, Steve! So far, almost all of my books on liberty etc. have had to be imported from the United States. We desperately need more British people talking and writing about the same ideas!
Steve,
There is a great review piece on Klein’s book – exposing the lies, mispresentation etc – by Johan Norberg. I forget the title, but it is available on the Cato Institute website – search for Norberg on Klein.
Best wishes
Mark P
Thanks Mark. Found it at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9384