Disaster Capitalism

DISASTER CAPITALISM: THE SCHOCK DOCTRINE & FORCED MIGRATION By Ophelie Lawson

You might wonder, what on earth is disaster capitalism and the shock doctrine?

Let me explain: The “shock doctrine” is a political strategy that consists of using the public disorientation following large-scale crises and disasters - wars, natural disasters, pandemics - (in other words massive collective shocks) to push through policies that systematically deepen inequality, enrich elites and which would normally never be accepted in ordinary circumstances. It uses the public’s disorientation following a collective shock to push through radical procorporate measures, often called “shock therapy”. Shock tactics follow a clear pattern: wait for a crisis, declare a moment of what is sometimes referred to as “extraordinary politics”, suspend some, or all, democratic norms – and then force the corporate wish list throughout hastily. The term Disaster capitalism is described by Naomi Klein in her book The Shock Doctrine (2007) as the way that private industries spring up to directly profit from large-scale crises. Capitalism uses disasters and catastrophes to privatize new sectors of society and imposes free-market reforms, creating private company profits but failing in terms of democracy, fairness, and justice. It hides behind situations that create hardship for people, profiting from the collective shock. This concept of disaster and crisis profiteering is not new. In her book, Naomi argues that it really became intense under the Bush administration after 9/11. The aftermath of 9/11 left Americans disoriented and in shock. The Bush administration seized the collective shock and fear felt by Americans after the attack and declared this sort of never-ending security crisis, privatizing security state, launching the ‘War on Terror’, and enabling the “Patriot Act” which violated many constitutional rights. The Patriot Act is an Antiterrorism law, passed by the United States Congress and signed by George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The purpose of the act is to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world.

Homeland security is now a $200 billion industry. Homeland security companies gained a lot, thanks to the atmosphere of crisis and fear that was being spread through media outlets. It gives the government rights to look at records on an individual’s activity held by third parties, allows security services to access computer data held by individuals and businesses without prior authorisation and/or notifying users. Now you might wonder, how does that apply to the so called ‘refugee crises? Refugee flow is a phenomenon that has already gained worldwide attention. In 2015, Greece was the main entry point for over one million refugees, forced migrants and migrants who fled to Europe by sea. 1,000,573 people reached Europe across the Mediterranean, mainly to Greece and Italy that year. A further 34,000 crossed from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land, according to the UNCHR The number of people displaced by war and conflict was in 2015 the highest seen in Western and Central Europe since the Balkan crises of the 1990s, (UNHCR). This period is known as the ‘European migrant crisis’, otherwise called ‘refugee crisis”. And much like any other “disaster,” the crisis has been and is continuously exploited for political and economic purposes, it is the perfect excuse for governments to push through radical agendas, as we have seen unravelling over the past few years. Policy makers within Europe have used the “refugee crisis” to push for more restrictive, selective, and securitised immigration and border control laws. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and for most European governments, it was the perfect opportunity to push through even more radical immigrant agenda - another ‘disaster’. Earlier this year, for instance, the EU started experimenting with new digital measure to prevent people from crossing, with the Greek border police firing bursts of deafening noise from an armoured truck over the frontier into Turkey using “sound cannon,” to protect its borders. This was part of new experimental digital barriers that were being tested during the quiet months of the Coronavirus pandemic and installed while Europe was still dealing with disorientation and shock in the middle of a catastrophe. During the pandemic, EU member states have used illegal operations to push back at least 40,000 asylum seekers from Europe’s borders. Their methods have been linked to the death of more than 2,000 people, an article from Guardian revealed following investigations, using the pandemic to both push through their agendas and ‘protect’ the borders. https://mojatu.com/2022/11/17/disaster-capitalismthe-schock-doctrine-and-forced-migration/

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE COMMON AND NORMALISED OBJECTIFICATION OF WOMEN

By Ophelie Lawson

If you are a man and you are reading this, you probably (and sorry if I am generalising, not all men are like that), ask yourselves “what does she mean by that?”. If you are a woman, even if you are unsure of the term, (and again I am generalising), well, you probably experienced what I am going to talk about, at least, to some extent. What does objectification mean anyway ?

Objectification means the act or an instance of treating a person as an object or thing, without regard to their personality or trait. Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. To put it into context, it means that women are reduced to their bodies, and that a female’s worth is often dependent on her appearance. Look at mainstream media for instance, and how sexually objectified portrayals of women are in the rise. Our patriarchal culture promotes the objectification of women to sell products amongst other things. Let’s consider American and European consumer culture, which are pretty much the same. Both cultures are patriarchal, male dominated and mostly male centred. Female objectification can be seen in commercials, television, movies, music videos, magazines, advertisements, video games, etc, and men are more likely to buy a product if it is attached to the sexualised objectified depictions of women. For them, sex sells. But what are they really selling ? Is it just their product or rather a particular image of women, that of a sexual being. It is estimated that American children and adolescents spend at least eight hours a day consuming some form of media. Data showed that 45.5% of female characters in children’s television programs are depicted in sexually objectified ways, (Ward, 2016). For children at a young age, this results in them associating females with objects instead of people. So, from a young age and through mainstream media, we are conditioning our youth to unconsciously perpetuate this objectification of women. But now the issue is not just on how mainstream media depicts women, but on how the whole Western patriarchal culture has always used women and their bodies for pleasure and as commodities. Women’s bodies are not only used to sell everything but also overexploited. Mainstream media is selling a false and unreal image of a woman’s physique and also behavioural standard. The fashion industry has also a long history of exploiting and hypersexualising girls and women’s body. ‘Sex sells’ is a saying well known, and also very much true in today’s society. Nowadays, the fashion industry is overloaded with sexual and explicit imagery of woman.

While embracing sexuality is important, where does it cross the line from liberation to objectification?

Big clothes companies and cosmetic brands are highly targeting young girls and women. Supermodels, celebrities, beauty queens, even dolls are used by the fashion industry to sell and reinforce the idea that girls and women must have unrealistic beauty and figures in order to be considered. Many studies have shown that this can negatively affect the mental health of women, young women, and girls. It leads to them perceiving their physical beauty as a measure of the amount of consideration and the power they should receive. But not only that, it also pushing them to try to conform to conventional and unrealistic beauty standards. Leading them to not accept and to criticise their own bodies and/or even develop some mental illness such as body dysphoria. Additionally, this sexual objectification is internalised to self-objectification that undermines self-esteem and promotes self-hatred and sometimes self-harm. This sexual objectification of white, thin, and young females also promotes this ideal as the beauty standard for all women. Recently, I tried to open up the conversation on female sexualised objectification with a good male friend of mine, a Pan-African, and human rights activist, who, unfortunately comes from a very sexist culture. It had appeared to me after knowing him for a while now that he was objectifying the female body way too much. It was through his constant remarks about my female friends, in professional contexts that it became quite obvious that he was doing it. It seems my female friends appeared to him first as bodies before anything else. He could not have a conversation with them without giving me a comment on their bodies. When I confronted him, his answer was: “What is objectification?”… to which after I tried to explain to him, he said, “well I don’t think I am doing it, and it’s not something that I experience, and to be honest with you I am not really interested in this subject”. I was shocked and yet not too much since this has really become the norm to treat women like this.

But with the rise in social media and the way it influences our cultures, it is important that the harmful ways in which we as women are portrayed and treated be challenged. Our bodies are not all we are. We are more that our physical appearance. We imperatively need to create positive social change surrounding gender stereotypes, liberating everyone from outdated gender roles. And by breaking down stereotypes on women we are also breaking down stereotypes on men.

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