Posted by Cliff Schecter
AlterNet
Alfonso Cuarón, director of "Children of Men", and Naomi Klein present a short film from Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."
![](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FHjm9k-LL._AA240_.jpg)
This film and book discuss the CIA's experimentation with using electric shock to break people down. Yet, the more important point of these works is that a broader "shock" to the systems of a people as a whole, like say 9/11, can have the kind of impact the CIA was searching for in their tests, one that breaks down a whole society and makes them so fearful they are open to nefarious suggestions.
I am sure none of this sound familiar, does it? This is very powerful stuff that can explain how a traumatized society may act, and may just explain to you why a certain former Mayor of New York mentions 9/11 4.75 times per sentence.
In any case here is a description in Naomi Klein's words--Watch the video!:
"My publisher came up with the idea of a "web trailer" but we ended up with a powerful piece of cinema instead. I never saw the film as a promotional tool for the book, or even an adaptation of it. I always saw it as a companion piece to the book, as a way to enter the same subject matter -- shock therapy, disorientation, torture -- on a different, much more emotional level. The central idea of the book is about the use of shocks to exploit people, whether an individual in a torture cell or an entire society. That is such a visual, physical idea that I felt limited by what I could do with mere words on a page -- I could argue and document but I knew that a true artist could find ways to take that argument and reach people on a deeper level. That's what Alfonso did.
When I finished the book, I sent it to Alfonso because I adore his films and felt that the future he created for Children of Men was very close to the present I was seeing in disaster zones. I was hoping he would send me a quote for the book jacket and instead he pulled together this amazing team of artists -- including Jonás Cuarón who directed and edited -- to make The Shock Doctrine short film. It was one of those blessed projects where everything felt fated."
To Watch the Video
A version is also on YouTube:
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