The Shock Doctrine and Global Warming: Matt Goodwin on Naomi Klein’s Critique of Predatory Capitalism and Its Reaction (or Lack of Reaction) to a Genuinely Existential Threat.  Mike Cosentino and Steve Williamson welcome Matt Goodwin, Professor of Philosophy at Northern Arizona University, and one of the founders of SPEX, the Sedona Philosophy Experience, back to Democratic Perspective for a discussion of the philosophical implications of Naomi Klein’s books The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything. What happens when private corporations use natural disasters as pretexts to turn the public services poor and working people depend on into commercial profit centers, or displace those same people from their ravaged communities in favor of real estate development? What happens when coal and oil companies deny the reality of global warming in order to preserve the profits from their sunk-cost investments in fossil fuel extraction and refining? The answer, of course, is nothing good — unless the people who stand to suffer from their callousness organize to defend themselves.

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