Shock Doctrine: Disaster Captialization

My new hero is Naomi Klein.
I am one quarter of the way through her book Shock Doctrine - Disaster Capitalization and I stopped reading as I became choked up - tears beginning to leak out.

I am in shock. I can't believe I have lived my life in such ignorance.

My quest for spiritual salvation has removed me from earthly disasters and albeit I have chosen this path in this life time - if in fact that is not just a bunch of hooey b.s.

How can any human being ignore the plight of other beings who are suffering. Talk about an awakening - this book has awakened in me a reality that I have been encouraged - taught by my spiritual teachers - to ignore.

The said that what you see is a reflection of your inner world - and if we choose love and peace then that is what we will see with our physical eyes. But even before I was on this quest - I don't remember really grasping the deplorable living conditions that some folks endure. I was much too self-absorbed to get it.

So what is happening to me now to allow me to see more clearly an entirely different kind of world?

I have a desire to speak to a truly enlightened teacher (perhaps my teachers, Krishnananda and Gauri were not actually enlightened after all.)

What does Eckhart Tolle say about the condition of the world - out there?

For example; what brought me close to tears was Naomi's report about Bolivia in 1985 when the new President, Paz, initiated economic reforms based on the theory of shock therapy (Milton Friedman) which sent the country into deep depression and two years later it was the poor - who were already poor before the reforms - who shouldered the cost of such reforms.

In 1987 the average Bolivian earned $140 per year. People were starving - children were lucky to have a piece of bread and a drink of tea each day.

What shocks me is that 1987 is not so far off in the past - I mean my son was 20 years old in l987. My daughter was 18. We were not starving - we have always had an abundance of everything, relatively speaking.

I did not think I was abundant because I always wanted to earn more money for financial freedom or rather financial independence.

How can human beings be so narrow minded. I once had a very good friend tell me he thought my ideas about spirituality were selfish. Is he right?

When I speak about choosing for inner peace and joy - I can do that in a flash - like now - I turn my awareness within to the stillness and voila - peace on demand is what I call it.

Now I will bring my awareness out to the external world - the planet - and allow my mind to encompass aspects of poverty and depression.

I don't get it - perhaps I have fallen off my path - and as my teacher says, it is really hard for those of us who have spent considerable time experiencing inner peace to get back up after they fallen off the path - so far I'm OK - I guess I wasn't so far away from the popular reality of seeing depression and depravity and the ego's view of humanity.

Fascinating is it not?

OK back to reading Naomi's book - she is brilliant - she can actually help me to understand economics - though I don't understand how other human beings can be so concerned about "profits" while watching other humans living in such terrible conditions.

What can I do about it?

Naomi also talks about the Alberta Tar Sands as being a huge creator of devastation to the planet - and the Royal Bank is funding it and so is Exxon funding the project.

We must stop supporting those money grabbing maniacs NOW.

I am not a customer of the Royal Bank, but I could write about it and let people know - I could recommend they read the book and watch her videos on her website.


I am becoming an activist - can a spiritual life include activism?