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Shock Therapy

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Shocks To The World The world is always changing in ways that both harm and hurt society. This has happened for generations and will continue to happen forever. In recent history a new change has occurred through Milton Friedman’s discovery and a passion for total free market capitalism. This extreme theory of economics is not widely accepted by the world though, so Friedman and his followers called, The Chicago boys, had to discover a way to implement this theory. They developed a strategy called Shock Therapy. This term in a medical sense is to cause “healing” damage to the brain, but in an economic sense it is used to shock the public and then implement your radical ideas upon them without their consent. This has happened and across the globe …show more content…

It is widely believed that the United States of America had a huge influence over instigating the coup (Friedman 1). Salvador Allende, the then president of Chile, mysteriously committed suicide as troops surrounded him in his home. President Allende was a very socialist leader which scared the more right-winged individuals in power at Washington D.C. This lead to many believing the United States of America was involved in staging the coup (1). After the shock of the coup, General Augusto Pinochet took control of the country. This allowed Friedman and his Chicago boys to take advantage of the shock and implement their radical economic principles into society. These ideas of privatization, and free markets greatly devastated Chile’s economy and only made the rich more rich. People you objected to these principles were disappeared and either killed or hidden from the public (Schemo 1). This destroyed Chilean ways of life and greatly changed their society. Even today many of Chile’s citizens still see and feel signs of what happened with Shock therapy economics

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The School of Shock by Jennifer Gonnerman is an article that was posted on a political blog, Mother Jones, on August 20, 2007. The article outlines the disturbing details of a behavior modification facility for severe special needs children and adults in Canton, Massachusetts. The facility, known as the Judge Rotenberg Center, uses shock-devices or “applications” from a “Graduated Electronic Decelerator” (GED) as “aversion therapy” for unfavorable behavior. The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) was founded by Dr. Matt Israel, Ph.D. to serve patients with extreme behavioral disorders without the use of medications or psychiatric therapy. Dr. Israel’s concept is that after repeated shocks, students will cease their bad behaviors, however, JRC is the only facility in the United States of America to uphold these practices.

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A loud squeaking sound fills the air. Jasper glances from his spot behind the tree to see a wooden box the size of a building opening. It doesn’t look like anything comes out, but the teen raises his gun to be cautious. Suddenly a loud shriek explodes in Jasper’s ears.

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The Shock Doctrine, by Naomi Klein, discusses multiple forms of shock that can be, and have been, used in a multitude of situations. According to Klein, Milton Friedman’s choice of shock was one of policy rather than an electric current. Friedman had a dream very similar to Dr. Ewen Cameron’s; both involved rewinding the clock to a time of innocence, a blank slate to implement their work. While Cameron reverted adults to a childlike state, Friedman “dreamed of de-patterning societies” (57). The University of Chicago’s Economics Department taught its students that, if returned to a state without government interference, the market would be able to regulate itself.

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