Klein: Bush admin creats crises to ‘enrich themselves and their friends’

On Thursday’s edition of The Colbert Report, bestselling author Naomi Klein argued that the Bush Administration creates crises in order to “enrich themselves and their friends,” drawing parallels between the torture of prisoners and the economic bailout being provided to Wall St. by US leaders.

Previously, Klein called out the sprawling economic crisis as just another example of the Bush ’shock doctrine,’ a key component to the ruling regime’s corporate agenda.

“Now, the name of your book is ‘The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,’” said host Stephen Colbert. “Okay now, what is the ’shock doctrine’? ‘Cause, that sounds like a great way to get information out of a prisoner.”

Amused, Klein responded, “Well, there really is a parallel. If you really want to get information out of a prisoner, you have to put them into a state of shock, and when they’re in that state, they’ll kinda do whatever you want.”

“Exactly!” exclaimed Colbert. “So, you agree that we should be torturing prisoners. You just said that. Those are your words, madam.”

Laughing, his guest played off the satirical remark.

“Whole societies also go into states of shock when there’s a crisis, like when there’s a terrorist attack, or a huge natural disaster, or a huge economic crisis,” said Klein. “Something happens, people don’t know what’s going on, and they’ll kinda do whatever people in authority want them to do.”

Klein continued: “They use shocks to enrich themselves and their friends… People are becoming shock resistant, which is wonderful because they remember the way this administration used the shock of Sept. 11 to build the Homeland Security industry; How Rudy Giuliani went into that industry himself as soon as he left office. They remember how the war in Iraq was used to privatize the government.”

This video is from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, broadcast October 2, 2008.