Doppelganger

Title: Doppelganger Author: Naomi Klein
Type:#book

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Final thoughts §

Rough notes §

Chapter 11: Calm… Conspiracy… Capitalism §

• “Pattern recognition is often how I describe the work of my life.” I found it true for Doppelganger; it’s hard to describe the book, and what the connection is to Doppelganger. Klein uses the Doppelganger concept to make sense of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers, the increasingly polarizing nature of our world - that was seemingly accelerated by Covid.
• “Calm is a form of resistence.” - John Berger
• ”… calm is why I write: to tame the chaos in my surroundings, in my own mind, and I hope in the minds of my readers as well.” This is why I’ve been enjoying the book so far; I like making sense of things, understanding things. I find it easier to control myself and be calm when I understand things; and when I’m calm, I have more clarity to think about my next moves and to prioritize.
• On conspiracy theories:
  • ”… one of the most battle-worn tactics to bury and marginalize ideas that are inconvenient to those who wield economic and political power. … Every serious left-wing analyst of power has faced this smear, from Marx onward.”
  • The European Commission defined conspiracy theories as “the belief that certain events or situations are secretly manipulated behind the scenes by powerful forces with negative intent.” - nothing said about the fact whether the theory is false or not. Klein argued, (and I agree), plenty situations are indeed manipulated with negative intent.
  • “Believing that does not make you a conspiracy theorist; it makes you a serious observer of politics and history.”
  • “There are always systemic forces at play… many have to do with the core capitalist imperative to expand and grow by seeking out new frontiers to enclose.”
  • “The accelerated need for growth has made our econommic lives more precarious, leading to the drive to brand and commodify our identities, to optimize our selves, our bodies, and our kids… elites who benefit greatly from these priorities are the same ones who bankroll politicla and media projects devoted to pitting nonrich people against one another based on race, ethnicity, and gender expression.
• “situations are secretly manipulated behind the scenes by powerful forces with negative intent” not all of these are conspiracy theories:
  • There is a difference b/n a system doing what it is intended to do regardless of human costs, vs nefarious individuals meddling in an otherwise just democracy
  • The left: structural analysis of wealth and power
  • We cannot change what we do not understand. without this understanding, it’s all nefarious individuals pulling the string -> conspiracy theories
• Liberal meritocracy: giving people tools to rise as individuals, not creating universal programs to guarantee a better life for all
  • Liberal investment in individualism -> power resides in individuals and groups rather than structuress
• How conspiracy culture is related to liberalism: conspiracy culture blames society ills on a singular individual (e.g. Fauci, Gates, Soros…)
• Apolitical people and covid conspiracy theories: they followed the rules as individuals, then came across a crisis (covid) that required them to do more as individuals - to examine the system
• Covid
  • Could only be addressed with collective action, individual sacrifices for the greater good (e.g. quarantine is one example of that!)
  • In the early weeks we have to think: who else exhaled this air, every time we touch a doorknob etc, were they well? Do they have access to healthcare?
  • “We were not, and never were, self-made. We are made, and unmade, by one another.”
• Some “conspiracy theories” are true, but usually the reasons can be traced back to the system - e.g. Exxon coverups, etc.
• “An economic order that contains inequalities as extreme as ours… is its own kind of depravity, and that level of injustice reproduces more depravity as a matter of course.”
• “The extreme consolidation in the corporate world over the past three decades has produced a playing field so rigged against consumers that pursuing the basics of life can feel like navigating a never-ending series of scams.”

Chapter 12: No Way Out but Back §

• On the discovery of the graves of indigenous children in Canada:
  • The children weren’t sent to schools for education, but to sever their connections with their land-based traditions, culture - not just because of racism, but desire to control the land, for resource extraction and settlement
    • See also: Killers of the Flower Moon - Osage County
  • “They stole the children to steal the land.” - Kanahus Manuel
• On the Freedom convoy trucker convoy protesting covid
  • Who were involved - small business owners, ex-cops, ex-soldiers, … Trump, Musk
    • Seems like they refuse vaccine because they cannot face the reckoning that we need to treat covid as a collective crisis
  • Great Replacement theory
    • They claimed the Christian Caucasian culture was under threat
    • At the same time - the schools were being forced to replace Indigineous traditions, languages, and cultures with English- and French-speaking culture
  • “a rejection of interdependence in favor of hyper-individual independence”
• “All of this destabilization demands us to change, reassess, and reimagine who we need to become… many are opting for some rather spectacular distractions, including the distraction of casting themselves as cosmic victims of every crime against humanity of the past five hundred years combined”.
• Why conspiratorial claims seem to contradict? It’s not to convince people of the real point, but to foster denial and avoidance, not to do uncomfortable things
• Denial is easier than looking inward, than change.
  • Conspiracy theories provide the narratives

Chapter 13: The Nazi in the Mirror

• Exterminate all the Brutes

Chapter 15: Unselfing

• “These doubles share one thing in common: all are ways of not seeing. Not seeing ourselves clearly (because we are so busy performing an idealized version of ourselves), not seeing one another clearly (because we are so busy projecting what we cannot bear to see about ourselves onto others), and not seeing the world and the connections among us clearly (because we have partitioned ourselves and blocked our vision).”
• On unselfing:
  • key to collective survival
  • our role on earth is not simply to maximize the advantage of our lives, it’s to maximize all life
• Confront and reimagine structures, instead of individualistic efforts
• Change requires collaboration and coalition
• “Everything worthwhile is done with other people.” - Mariame Kaba
• “It’s our fragmentation that daunts us, as much as the challenges themselves.”
• Bias against solidarity is dangerous
• “Time to loosen the grip on various forms of proprietary paind and selfhood, and reach toward many different forms of possible connection and kin”
• “We live in a society that encourages and rewards the uncaring parts of ourselves, while making it hard to care for others outside our immediate family in any sustained way… we need better structures and systems.”

Quotes §