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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 2007)
TO THE EDITOR ORCHESTRATED MISERY If you don’t read another book in the next five years, this is the one to read: We don’t have to be vague anymore about suspecting that a planned misery is sweeping the globe. In Naomi Klein’s brilliant masterpiece The Shock Doctrine, she supplies us with an uncommon clarity about the evolution and scope of the corporate oligarchy that has overtaken American economics and intends to reorder the whole world. Haven’t you had the feeling all along that this is an organized plan? It is, and how! There are two bibles used in this world economics coup, Klein points out, and nei- ther of them have anything to do with Jesus. The first is the fundamentalist bible of the so-called neo-liberal economics of Milton Friedman. In the 1950s, Milton was a famed “free market” professor of economics at the University of Chicago. His status as a Nobel laureate of theoretical economics enabled him to mentor four decades of devotees (from the CIA, Kissinger, Pinochet, right-wing think tanks; Reaganomics is Miltonomics and so is the Republican Revolution), on up to and foremost — the cur- rent White House MBA team. Since Milton was a theorist, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Indonesia and now the U.S. and beyond have all been seemingly donated as laboratories for Milton’s free market experiment, to see if his theories work. They work all right. They transfer huge wealth from public to private hands, over and over again. The most effective tools used to make this happen, country by country, have been fear, torture and terror. It is a planned worldwide economic venture that first renders the society unstable and dangerous. When the vast population is sufficiently numbed with fear and the society has quickly undergone the three-fold transformation of pri- vatization, deregulation and severe cuts to social spending, then the huge wealth grabs can ensue! Sound familiar? The second bible in the economic reordering of the world is the Kubark manual. That’s the step-by-step torture manual written by CIA authors that follows the “re- gression techniques” discovered by the CIA-sponsored experiments based in Canada with psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron, another ’50s theorist prize winner. In his experi- ments with unsuspecting human participants, Cameron used excessive electric shock, extreme drugging, sense depravation, isolation and recorded messages played endlessly into the ears of the subject. This “therapy” went on for a month or more until the subject lost all sense of self. Cameron’s assumption was that only when all of the subject’s previous patterning had been destroyed was it then possible to remake their minds “with a clean slate to write upon.” All of Cameron’s patients suffered great harm. The CIA insists this effective tor- ture is not sadism, but science, and put it into their Kubark manual that is still used today as the how-to guide to render a human being into severe regression. It is the torture manual used in Iraq and in Guantánamo and other unknown places. This is the doctrine of shock, to render one person or a movement or a whole population senseless and completely vulnerable by overwhelming them with “shock and awe.” It works the same on a nation as it does on one individual. Sound familiar? The two bibles work hand in hand. But, “I don’t think I was ever regarded as evil,” writes Friedman, in The Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2006. Could that be because the truth was covered-up? Until now, that is … Deb Huntley Eugene e GloryBee ® Factory Store f Open Saturdays through December 22 nd • 10am-2pm Whatever your craft—soap, candle, skin care, candy—we have the ingredients and ideas you need for handmade holiday gifts. TO THE EDITOR DOWNTOWN RESOLUTION For the New Year here in our lovely com- munity of Eugene, I wish for continued pas- sion for our downtown area. I would like to sincerely thank all who worked passionately in the recent election for their view of a better downtown. I am asking all who worked for and against the urban renewal ballot measure to please not give up seeking new possibili- ties! I do in my heart believe that all who worked so hard in both directions all dream of a wonderful downtown. We all dream of a town center with something for everyone and a great place to gather together for celebra- tions. I am asking all to step back, take a deep breath and try to look at everything in a fresh New Year’s light. To all the business owners who are taking a chance downtown now, I say thank you as well as thanks and kudos to all those who frequent and support these busi- nesses. To everyone else, I would ask you to go downtown and check it out; there is much good actively working down there now. Try a First Friday ARTWalk or go for dinner and a walkabout. For, in the end, anything at all could be built downtown, and it still would only work if we, the people, come! We Eugeneans who make our way down- town on our bicycles, by foot, by bus and by auto will create a lively, vibrant, fun down- town! So, once again, I ask for continued passion mixed with compassion and optimism in the New Year. Tim Boyden Eugene WHERE WILL I PARK? The board of directors of the South University Neighborhood Association (SUNA) is still getting used to the fact that seven stories of student housing will be built T ARARIN T H A I C U I S I N E Mother’s homemade recipes • Fresh & healthy • No MSG, No dairy •Vegetarian Selections • DINE IN OR CARRY OUT • WEEKDAY LUNCH SPECIALS • MORE THAN 20 SELECTIONS OF BEER AND WINE Th e largest selection of Essential Oils in Eugene Soap Making and Natural Craft Supplies Factory-direct Natural Ingredients Open to the Public M–F 9:00am–5:30pm 55 N. Seneca Rd., Eugene, OR 97402 (541) 689-0913 4 DECEMBER 20, 2007 1 20 0 O AK ww w. ta r a ri n t ha i .c om S T . • E UG EN E , OR • ( 5 41 ) 34 3 - 12 3 0 Mon. - Fri.: 11-3 PM lunch, 4:30-10 PM dinner • Sat. - Sun.: 12-10 PM