January 18, 2023

By David Jay Morris

Most BuzzFlash readers will no doubt be familiar with the Shock Doctrine.  It’s the concept popularized by noted author and activist Naomi Klein that major economic, military, or environmental disasters are often used by despots, the ultra-rich and corporate elites to stack the deck even further in their favor. 

Basically, the theory holds that the state of fear, uncertainty and stress generated by a crisis can hyperactivate the fight or flight “lizard brain” in many people, shutting down their ability to think rationally for themselves.  

And making them all-too-willing to go along with a strongman’s empty promises or the easy-sounding solutions offered by right-wing libertarian industrialists or oligarchs.

Solutions which always transfer even more money, power and influence to the ones who already have too much, at the expense of the traumatized ordinary people.

As originally put forward by Ms. Klein, the doctrine primarily related to the exploitation of extreme real-world situations by unscrupulous elites to increase their wealth and power.

Bad enough…but is something even worse now happening?

A “Culture Shock Doctrine,” perhaps.

The term is defined by Oxford Languages as, “the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone when they are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.”  It’s usually experienced by people visiting or living in an unfamiliar country and, depending on the circumstances, the feelings it engenders can range from amusement to outright terror.

An amusing example might be the reaction many Americans have when they first see one of the stick figure diagrams found in public restrooms in Japan showing how to use a western style toilet.

For a more horrifying one, think of how Brittney Griner must have felt upon hearing her nine year prison sentence in Russia for possession of a small number of cannabis oil vape cartridges.

In both cases, the shock arose due to an unfamiliarity or lack of understanding of another culture’s customs and values.  In the case of the Japanese toilet stickers, the only consequence was a few chuckles, but for Brittney, the result of her lack of awareness of the customs, norms…and dangers of the society in which she chose to live was catastrophic.

A “Culture Shock Doctrine,” refers to quite a different type of shock.

The kind created by the ever-intensifying culture “wars” now threatening to tear apart the United States.

The kind put forward daily by Fox “News,” OAN, “Truth” Social and the newly empowered Chaos Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The kind that leads a failed Republican candidate to shoot up the homes of Democratic officials in New Mexico because – like his hero, Donald Trump – he couldn’t deal with or accept the objective fact that he had lost.

The kind that leads Marjorie Taylor Greene to rail against Jewish space lasers or Rep. Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar to insist that the January 6th insurrectionists must have been Antifa.

The kind that has led newly purchased Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to create a monstrosity named the “Select Committee on Weaponization of Government,” whose mandate will actually include investigation of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board – right up there with Hunter Biden’s laptop in terms of target legitimacy.

The kind that lets the most unchristian loudmouths in America loudly proclaim their Christianity.

The kind that make it possible for lifelong grifters like George Santos (if that’s his name) and Donald Trump to be trusted with people’s votes.

All of it is nonsense.

Of course it is.

But that doesn’t matter at all.

What matters is that even the most idiotic and uninformed conspiracy theories and lies will be picked up at once by the right-wing echo chamber and bounced around at maximum volume until the next one comes along. 

And 30 – 40 percent of American voters are listening.

And believing.

And arming themselves to the teeth.

And kept in a permanent full-time state of maximum terror over what they perceive to be the destruction of America by the devil-worshiping, baby-killing, woke mob of the left.

Kept in a state of lizard brain activation in which the fascists, demagogues and grifters who seek to control them are easily able to do so.

The evildoers described in Ms. Klein’s seminal work on the Shock Doctrine at least made use of actual, real-world crises to terrify the masses.

Inspired by their hero in Mar-a-Lago, the new generation now exploiting the effects of the Culture Shock Doctrine have found a better way to keep their followers in a continuous state of anxiety, however.

Just make it all up.