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War, who talked about the Soviet Union as

course, is that Klein accuses Friedman of

"impressive," and who explained that his ideas

being in favor of this state of affairs. But far

were well adapted to a totalitarian system in

from being a defender of corporate welfare,

the introduction to the German translation of

Friedman was one of its most consistent

his General Theory in 1936.78And the follower

opponents: "Private enterprise is entitled to

receive the rewards of success only if it also

who says nice things about dictators is Naomi

bears the penalties of failure. . . . No obstacles,

Klein herself, who has nothing but praise for

no subsidies should be the rule."76

Cuba,79 Che Guevara,80 and Hezbollah81 when

Instead of accusing Friedman of saying the

she mentions them in her book, and who

opposite of what he actually did say, Klein

defended the Iraqi radical leader Muqtada al-

could have made the case that corporate wel-

Sadr as representing the mainstream of Iraq

and as fighting only in self-defense.82 And the

fare is the unintended consequence of an open

economy and a limited government. But she

leaders who implement the "economic nation-

doesn't supply us with arguments for this cor-

alism" Klein asks for are people like Vladimir

relation, and her examples support the oppo-

Putin, Hugo Chavéz, and Mahmoud Ahmed-

site view. She writes about Russian oligarchs,

inejad, who do it while dismantling indepen-

the United States post-9/11, and privatization

dent and democratic institutions. In other

in Latin America. But the oligarchs and many

words, Klein does not seem to mind dictators,

of the Latin American deals were the result of

fascists, and murderers, as long as they don't

lower taxes and trade barriers.83

excluding outsiders and foreigners from the

Klein's interpretation of Russia in the

process, which Klein admits but doesn't see the

implications of.77 Meanwhile, the corporate

1990s reveals her attitude toward democracy.

welfare in the United States and Iraq is a result

She blames Russian president Boris Yeltsin for

of a massive increase in public spending and--

destroying democracy in the fall of 1993, when

according to Klein herself--barring competi-

he ignored the anti-Yeltsin majority in parlia-

tors from deals. Anti-Friedmanite to the core.

ment. When legislators occupied the building

and called for his resignation, Yeltsin dissolved

the legislature by force and called for new elec-

Attitudes toward

tions. She admits that there were "proto-fas-

Democracy

cist" groups in the parliamentary camp, but

doesn't seem to mind--when you are fighting

If we strip away obvious misunderstand-

for democracy you can't be too choosy about

ings and distortions, there is not much left of

your friends, apparently. Yet Fred Kaplan, one

Klein's arguments against libertarianism and

of the reporters who visited the communist

Milton Friedman in The Shock Doctrine. Is her

and ultranationalist occupiers, calls this

case against a movement really that its guru

description "ludicrous":

economist used crises to get people to buy his

ideas and flattered fascist and communist dic-

I was one of many reporters who spent

Klein does not

tators to get their support? That one of the

an eerie afternoon in the parliament

economist's famous followers has only nice

building, talking with its armed, black-

seem to mind

things to say about dictators, political mur-

booted, and stinking-drunk occupiers.

dictators, fascists,

derers, and terrorists as long as they have the

Believe me--and Klein should, since

she quotes one of my Globe reports in

right ideas about the market? That those ideas

and murderers,

coexist comfortably with political oppression?

describing the soldiers shelling the

as long as they

If that is the case, Klein has a problem.

building the next morning--there were

no democrats among that lot.84

don't lower taxes

Because the economic guru is her own

favorite, the British economist John Maynard

and trade

Keynes, who rose to prominence because of

Once again, Klein has had to change the

barriers.

the Great Depression and the Second World

chronology to make it fit her case. She claims

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