Get Out of My Head, Naomi Klein!

There was a somewhat cheezy but strangely memorable science fiction movie back in the ‘80s called ‘They Live’. It was about a guy who finds a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see subliminal messages in billboards and magazine ads, as well as the true faces of the yuppies and power elite who turn out to be hideous aliens trying to take over the world.

That’s what I feel like after reading Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine’.

I can’t read or watch the news any more without zeroing in on terms like ‘public/private partnerships’ or asking myself which multinational corporations are going to make a killing this time.

Even watching that ‘Killer Wave’ mini-series last week, I immediately recognized that the likely culprit behind these man-made Tsunamis had to be some mega corporation that stood to profit from providing reconstruction services to devastated coastal communities. Because really, it’s not that big a stretch to go from disaster capitalism to disaster creation, right?

That's not paranoia, right?

Or take this bit of news:

Ottawa's demand for review 'crazy,' Miller says

The "ideology" of the federal Conservatives is needlessly delaying the extension of the Spadina subway north into York Region, Mayor David Miller charged yesterday, accusing the government of demanding a "crazy" financial review of the project.

Last March, Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised $697-million for the $2.1-billion, 8.6-kilometre subway expansion, already approved by the province and by York Region.

But no cheque from Ottawa has been signed, Mr. Miller said, because the federal government is forcing the Toronto Transit Commission to review the project in order to determine whether the private sector could be more involved in a so-called public-private partnership.

There’s that word again: ‘private’. Meaning corporate. Meaning the use of millions of our tax dollars to enrich the shareholders of whatever corporation gave Harper the most money last year so they can sub-contract the job out to the lowest bidder who will pay the lowest wages they can and use the cheapest materials available to do the most half-assed job they can possibly get away with. It’s just like the IMF did in Bolivia when they demanded the privatization of their water system as a condition of…

Grrrr… See? I can’t stop myself. It’s everywhere!

Put on the glasses, man. It'll change your life.