My Library Section 1

This so called Average Joe is not like his Superiors who rule by an atavistic combination of State and Corporate Elites but any Average Joe who is into those most enlightening of things the books.

The Shock Doctrine is about how Corporate and State Elites effectively force Wild Capitalism/Free Market Shock Therapy on unwilling masses on the back of national disasters, financial crises, recession etc.  In other words it is by forcing Liquid Capitalism that Capitalism is made to look immutable, indestructible against any arguments marshalled against it and strengthen it’s hand.

The Masses are forced to pay through insecure ‘flexible’ employment, no or reduced benefits from Sick Pay to Pension (note the destruction of the  Company Pension where the hapless salary slave should at least have a comfortable Pension to look forward too after slaving for the Company 24/7), demand and supply ‘efficiencies’ ie lose job at the slightest incremental change of the Economists Supply and Demand Curves.; and through psychologically profiled intrusive advertising campaigns, online and offline, that entice the Wage Slave or unemployed etc to shop till they drop, regardless of Customer Service and Qaulity of goods etc purchased.

Klein reminds us that Companies stalk us for our spending but deny us jobs, such an observation is worth bearing in mind as we all seek the good life for ourselves regardless of our social station.

Klein also shows us that that the creation of EPZ where there are low tax regimes in foreign countries mean the workers are denied rights and she chronciles the appalling abuses thereof.

These alone should set off alarm bells in any reader astute enough to see through the propagandist mainstream media organs who should IMHO read the Canon of Todays Progressive and Leftist Literature which seeks to answer the problem of ‘What are we gonna do about it’ and ‘How are we gonna survive and thrive in this vampirish environment.’

To sum up: Klein is essential reading to all those seeking to penetrate behind the fog of media propaganda ( whilst genuinely being informed) to see the Puppeteers hidden behind the facade.

I managed 38 out of 50 books in 2009. This year I need to hit  50.

1. Aristotle ‘The Politics’
2. Thomas Aquinas ‘Utopia’

20.  Alexander Mc Call Smith ‘Tears of a Girraffe’

21. George Stock ‘Stoicism’

22. Martin Lewis Three things about Money

23. Homer The Odyssey

24.Euthyphro Plato

25. Milton The Aeropagita

26 Martha Nussbaum Upheavals of Thought: the Intelligence of the Emotions 766 pages

27  Jonathan Glover ‘Causing Deaths and Saving Lives’

28  Steven Lukes ‘Moral Relativism’

29  Tom Shakespeare ‘Disability Rights and Wrongs’

30 Sophie Kinsella ‘ The Undomesticated Goddess’

31. Naomi Klein ‘No Logo’

32. Louis Althusser ‘On Ideology’

33. George Bernard Shaw ‘Pygmalion’

34. John Carey ‘Pure Pleasure’

35. John Jacques Rousseau ‘The Discourse on Ineqaulity’

36 Nietzsche The Joyful Science

37 Plato The Ion

38 Harriet Beacher Stowe ‘Uncle Toms Cabin’

This is what my Mum calls ‘FEEL GOOD GENRE ‘ that is Fiction that has a Feel Good Factor in the truest most genuine sense of the word which won’t leave a bitter or dark aftertaste in your mouth or make you feel as if you are a unfulfilled Revolutionary as other books make you feel.

Mme Rambotswe heroine of show. This is the lady who learns her trade on the fly and ends up with skills that gradually grow into an uncanny reputation to get to the bottom of things no matter how difficult or complex the quandary. She is someone you can get on and like. If you, yourself were in the Story then she would be your best mate who you would have over on a regular basis and who incidentally would have useful skills for those times when you need something requiring a little Private Investigation

The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency is full on Private Detective material with all it implies covering a whole range of grievances from husbands who play away to stolen cars, child abductions, and common or garden witchcraft incidents.

We normally associate Private Investigation with the dark, sly, underground, depths, unknown, undetected portrayal. Sad occasions where one is likely to need a private Detective to get facts behind the suspicious behaviours of a cherished person of yours and or situation.

We get other metaphors like the hated White Van Man so hated by the UK Public and parodied by all alike.

All this takes place in everyday Africa with it’s wonders and tragedies, pictures and media portrayals. Here we have an everyday life lived out efficiently in a modest South African? Township

where life goes on and is ENJOYED despite of all the troubles assailing the Africans.

Writing this Review has made me realise the various components that Alexander Mc Call Smith has used to great effect in his book. It is not contrived, it is not unrealistic but it is wall to wall Feel Good and we all need Novels with the Feel Good Factor. I will read more.

250 pages

Time to read over a week? Alongside heavy Nussbaum and newly minted God Delusion.

KT

What have I learn’t from Machievelli? he uses Cesare Borgia and other chap to craft a political theory for the young upstart who wishes to get ahead in politics (or elsewhere one might reason). For this to happen cruelty etc is fine. All long our heros have desired results at the dreadful cost to their subjects.

If I have Lecture material on and or other podcast material this can be used as well. All in all Machievelli is the Barstards Guide to getting on in politics hence its popularity and reknown amongst various general publics.

I am wondering if Machievellian Thought does not in a way pave way for Shock Doctrine, the practice of  [Wild ]Disaster Capitalism that is abroad unfortunately globally today?