Naomi Klein redux BOOK REVIEW

Naomi Klein was the most visible face of the botched 1990s anti-globalisation movement, and its most articulate voice. While the movement disintegrated after struggling to find a coherent message and direction, she has kept the fight going, mainly through her writings and public speaking.

This is her fourth book — and the least original, mostly a rehash of her previous writings, especially her two bestsellers, No Logo (hailed as “the Das Kapital of the anti-corporate movement”), and The Shock Doctrine. The best bits are not even about US President Donald Trump. It’s her blistering polemical attack on “elite liberals” such as the Clintons and the Blairs for their awe of wealth and an almost religious belief in its magical power to “fix” anything — remove poverty, eradicate disease, and reverse climate change. It was their love-in with the “Davos class” and intense courtship of billionaires (Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Richard Branson), treating them as new messiahs come to save the world that, Ms Klein says, gave Mr Trump the confidence to have a crack at the presidency.

“...the precedents set by [Davos] mountaintop do-gooderism are part of the reason it became fathomable for Mr Trump to run in the first place, and for millions of Americans to vote to hand over their government directly to a man whose sole qualification for the job was his wealth,” she writes, arguing that they were the original promoters of the idea that if you’re rich you can play god — and even perhaps beat him at his own game.

“Trump’s assertion that he knows how to fix America because he’s rich is nothing more than an uncouth, vulgar echo of a dangerous idea we have been hearing for years: That Bill Gates can fix America. Or that Richard Branson and Michael Bloomberg can solve climate change,” she writes.

Ms Klein comes from the Bernie Sanders school of Leftism, with a visceral hatred of the Clintons and their celebrity liberal chums. Many of her fellow travellers like the actor Susan Sarandon couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Hillary Clinton. But there are few spectacles as compelling as the Left fighting the Left; and Ms Klein is in top form here.

But, alas, the rest of the book is akin to tuning into old news.

Ms Klein’s principal argument is that the Trump presidency is nothing but an extension of the Trump business brand; all that has happened is that the boardroom has moved from Trump Tower to the White House. And his victory represents the ultimate corporate takeover of American administration. “His worldview is shaped by his belief that his brand is the ultimate boss, the guy who is so rich he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and to whomever he wants .... ” An attitude he has brought to the White House with his total disregard for presidential norms of behaviour, and his arbitrary policy-making. He is so completely “merged” with his corporate brand that he is unable to tell where the Trump brand ends, and the Trump presidency begins.

“To understand Trump, you really have to understand the world that made him what he is, and that, to a very large extent, is the world of branding. He reflects all the worst trends I wrote about in No Logo,” she says.

To be fair, Mr Trump never disguised who he was; if anything, he flaunted his “Brand Trump” image. That was his USP, he told voters. As a rich and successful businessman he was best equipped to “drain the swamp” because he knew it from inside. But despite knowing who he was – a “brand bully” and “corporate crook” in Ms Klein's words – millions of Americans across the class and gender divide happily bought into his claims.

So, how did it come to this? Here, Ms Klein invokes her famous “shock doctrine politics” which describes a system that deploys “brutal” tactics to exploit the public’s disorientation in the wake of a collective shock from a war or a terror attack, or a natural disaster to push through radical pro-corporate measures in the name of “shock therapy”. Mr Trump’s election and his policies are a perfect example of how shock politics works, she claims. Mr Trump also represents a wider global phenomenon that has seen a surge of “authoritarian, xenophobic, far Right politics —from Marine Le Pen in France to Narendra Modi in India”.

Absolutely right. But don’t we already know all this? There’s nothing new that Ms Klein offers either in terms of information or insight. Even her headline prescription that saying “no” is not enough and that we must actively resist the Trump phenomenon by offering a compelling positive alternative vision is a nobrainer. It would have helped if she had spelt out this vision but she admits that she herself doesn’t know “what that vision looks like... I am figuring it out with everyone else”!

Much of the book is old hat, repetitive, and is unlikely either to contribute anything concrete to the debate on populist politics or enhance our understanding of the Trump presidency. But it does come with some impressive endorsements from several heavyweight academics and writers, including Arundhati Roy.