Celebrities on the Electric Chair?
This article will talk about how Shock Treatment has evolved to include social disasters as well as natural disasters. This includes celebrity dramas and harmless nation upsets such as Collin Kaepernick kneeling.
Kanye West. Within the past few months this man has made some peculiar decisions that make you question if he is ok in the head. His decline started when he was seen wearing a MAGA hat. The same man who said Bush doesn’t care about black people was caught willingly wearing a MAGA hat. The next step in this seeming psychotic break was his song Lift Yourself. At first this song is a jam, then he comes in with the words woop di de scoop (I probably did not get the exact words right). He does not even say them in a fun way it is almost robotic and only entertaining if you laugh at it. And last, but not least, three days later, in an interview, he said slavery was a choice. Kanye’s descent into this new self had people questioning if secretly Kanye died recently and was replaced by a lizard clone. However, there is a larger fish to fry. While all of this was happening, College Board has decided to start the AP world History curriculum at 1450. This would only teach our children about the world’s history regarding the height of colonialism and completely ignore the past the worlds countries had before the white man intervened. Do not worry there is still time to stop it by signing this petition. However the fact that a change in education this big could happen without their being a huge uproar is frightening.
In the book “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster” Naomi Klein explains “Shock Treatment,” coined by Professor Friedman from the University of Chicago. Shock Treatment is the idea of keeping an unliked political idea on the table until a disaster happens, then when everyone is in too much shock from the event, you can implement the idea without any lashback. Basically it allows bodies of power to do anything they want whenever a distraction appears. However, I believe this technique has evolved to not only include natural disasters but social ones as well.
Kanye West going through this rollercoaster did not cause any casualties or property damage, yet it was still enough to distract the public from this major change in an education standard. Colin Kaepernick kneeling did not destroy thousands of peoples homes, but it was enough to distract everyone from the actual effectiveness of Trump’s campaign. This was even shown in the show Bojack Horseman. Bojack disrespected a navy seal by eating his muffins and it made national television. On the shows news station, a reporter was about to talk about the government discussing a bill that will turn the nation’s education system upside down, but in mid-sentence she was cut off by an updated report on the muffin crisis. The social disaster of disrespecting a veteran had distracted the nation from doing anything about a bill that would change their education system forever. That is the power of Shock Treatment. Instead of waiting for the next hurricane bodies of power now wait for the next disrespected veteran or celebrity holding some crazy views.
The best way to avoid falling victim to Shock Treatment is to stay aware of what the government or other boards might be up to the next time Kim Kardashian has a falling out or Justin Bieber gets another DUI. Shock Treatment is a powerful thing governments have been using since the term was coined. Sadly, it is our responsibility to not give them this power and ignore the distractions set up to hide the next big thing the government does.
