sorta Watchmen, sorta P

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jill Adams" <grladams at teleport.com>
To: "Michael Bailey" <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>; "P-list" 
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 08, 2009 3:18 AM
Subject: Re: sorta Watchmen, sorta P


>I never realized how sinister and real the covert CIA missions to undo a 
>man's personality were until I started reading Shock Doctrine/ Naomi Klein. 
>Some of my more conspiracy theory friends made claims about these sorts of 
>things... But I tossed a lot of that stuff out with the mixmash of wild 
>things they'd say, Roswell, Chemtrails, believing that yeah, probably there 
>was a little shock treatment and a couple pills or so.. I had no idea the 
>quantity, the conniving and orchestration that went into it.. so evil..
> I'm not alone, Shock Doctrine swept through my sleepy suburban library, 
> hundreds perhaps thousands of holds have been fulfilled and people are 
> reading it. It's just the plainspoken clarity of Shock Doctrine, it 
> doesn't come off in that sweaty palmed hysteric way that my conspiracy 
> theory friends act when they start going off.
>
> what is that mechanism... that I have noticed, that I will <not> be 
> persuaded by emotional claims..i don't know whether I am more disgusted 
> with myself for not really seeking the truth, putting up a defense against 
> knowing, or if I'm more disgusted with the reality of the bald existence 
> of the shock doctrine.
> Maybe it was easier to believe that They didn't have Their shit together 
> enough to wage such scientific experiments, thow big levers of power. but 
> They very much do have Their shit together.
>
> -Jill

But don't be too hard on yourself, Jill.  Those conspiracy theorist can get 
a bit carried away.

It is possible to accept many of Klein's ideas about "shock doctrine" 
without making the connection with shock therapy carried out in a clinical 
setting as Klein does.

Nobel lautiate Joseph Stigletz wrote in the N Y Times:

In an early chapter, Klein compares radical capitalist economic policy to 
shock therapy administered by psychiatrists. She interviews Gail Kastner, a 
victim of covert C.I.A. experiments in interrogation techniques that were 
carried out by the scientist Ewen Cameron in the 1950s. His idea was to use 
electroshock therapy to break down patients. Once “complete depatterning” 
had been achieved, the patients could be reprogrammed. But after breaking 
down his “patients,” Cameron was never able to build them back up again. The 
connection with a rogue C.I.A. scientist is overdramatic and unconvincing, 
but for Klein the larger lessons are clear: “Countries are shocked — by 
wars, terror attacks, coups d’état and natural disasters.” Then “they are 
shocked again — by corporations and politicians who exploit the fear and 
disorientation of this first shock to push through economic shock therapy.” 
People who “dare to resist” are shocked for a third time, “by police, 
soldiers and prison interrogators.”


>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>>Sent: Mar 7, 2009 7:47 PM
>>To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Subject: sorta Watchmen, sorta P
>>
>>okay, so I got the other Watchmen title on DVD, the original
>>illustrator oversaw the addition of a little motion to the original
>>frames...
>>
>>anyway, just one comment.  If that was a real prison psychologist, ol'
>>Rorschach would be so full of Thorazine...
>>
>>having personal experience with at least that phase of Frenesi's
>>experience, I'm here to tell you that They have stuff that can
>>obliterate defiance pretty thoroughly.  Don't know why she would get
>>it on with Vond in the first place, but the career change and
>>different personality is really no stretch of the imagination at all.
>>And if that is "blaming the drugs" then I guess I'm guilty of that
>>weakness too, like governments and Frenesi.
>>Pretty powerful stuff, those neuroleptics.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>-- 
>> - "Be groovy or B movie" - the old 24fps signoff
>