The following, as noted, are quotes pulled from Naomi Klein’s new book, No is Not Enough. They point to what I too understand to be at the heart of our current political disaster, the embodiment of which is represented in the figure of Trump, the substance of which is the kind of capitalism we have been sold and that we have bought despite the fact that its effect on real human beings was truly terrible. We had to ignore what was going on, the wholesale undoing of a democratic system of government, it replaced by a government for and of and by corporations whose beneficiaries used their massive amounts of money to buy whatever they wanted including power to dominate over everyone else here and around the world.
Several years ago, as I have mentioned in more than one Facebook post and in numerous Tweets, Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine explored critical elements of our past that should have foretold of what was to come, the corporate takeover not accomplished in a day or a few years but over a long period of time (chronicled also in Kevin Phillip’s book American Theocracy) and accelerated during the Reagan presidency. Now, Klein has written what she obviously believes to be most necessary book that is meant to call upon us to think deeply about how we have come to be a Trumpdom and what needs to be done to cut ourselves loose from what Trumpdom really means, what is being lost and will continue to be lost unless people realize the magnitude of what has happened to us, why it has happened, and begin rethinking life in order to break free of the constraints on our thinking that we, the people, have, pretty much voluntarily, allowed to be imposed.
Two quotes, one a quote in Klein’s book that comes from Martin Luther King.
“In this sense, there is an important way in which Trump is not shocking. He is the entirely predictable, indeed clichéd outcome of ubiquitous ideas and trends that should have been stopped long ago. Which is why, even if this nightmarish presidency were to end tomorrow, the political conditions that produced it, and which are producing replicas around the world, will remain to be confronted. With US vice president Mike Pence or House speaker Paul Ryan waiting in the wings, and a Democratic Party establishment also enmeshed with the billionaire class, the world we need won’t be won just by replacing the current occupant of the Oval Office.”
Klein, Naomi. No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need (pp. 10-11). Haymarket Books. Kindle Edition.
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. —MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.” “Beyond Vietnam,” 1967
Klein, Naomi. No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need (p. 14). Haymarket Books. Kindle Edition.