My classmate Cherry Chang wrote an enlightening piece on the ethical issues regarding designer Kenneth Cole’s capitalization on the Syrian Civil War. Her discussion of the profitability of disaster reminded me of a book I once picked up: The Shock Doctrine .
In it, Klein explains how she believes that governments (especially America’s) have long been using disasters (real or invented) to push through controversial policies and/or spread capitalism while citizens are still shocked by the crisis. The name for this method: Disaster Capitalism. The strongest case for her beliefs is The Iraq War where “at the most chaotic juncture in Iraq’s civil war, a new law is unveiled that would allow Shell and BP to claim the country’s vast oil reserves…. Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly out-sources the running of the “War on Terror” to Halliburton and Blackwater”. If true (and I personally think it is), this method shakes the commonly-held belief that free-market economies have triumphed because they are simply better; instead it would appear that our beloved capitalism needed a little help from some disastrous friends. Now I wonder, what would the world’s economies look like if it weren’t for the American government’s employment of shock doctrine tactics?
If the USA were a corporation, I would recommend that they re-evaluate their aggressive marketing strategy for their product, capitalism, before consumers are completely turned off and potential trading partners are scared away.
Sources:
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/cherrychang/2013/09/11/blog-1-business-ethics-using-disaster-to-sell/
