No Is Not Enough

By Naomi Klein
Reviewed by Lois Schroff
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No Is Not Enough

 

Subtitled Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need, Klein, award-winning journalist and author of four other best sellers, takes aim at the Milton Freidman-based corporate world economics now engulfing us with dirty air, water and land. Reviewing the theme explained in her earlier book, The Shock
Doctrine,
she applies this to Donald Trump’s daily Twitters that keep America and the world off balance.

What is new in this book is that she explains that what we need to understand in our bones is that the spell of neo-liberalism has been broken, crushed under the weight of lived experience and a mountain of evidence. What for decades was un-sayable is now being said out loud by candidates who win millions of votes: free college tuition, double the minimum wage, 100% renewable energy as quickly as technology allows, demilitarize the police, prisons are no place for young people, refugees are welcome here, and war makes us less safe.

The book concludes with a copy of what is now being tested in Canada (Naomi Klein’s home)—The Leap Manifesto, created by a collection of activists in diverse fields determined to counter what appears to be an avalanche of wrongs that need righting if the human race is to survive on this planet.

In a weekend conference attended by representatives from multiple NGOs, each attempting not to focus entirely on their specialized issues, they began by asking questions such as: what are the qualities we value most in people?--what do these qualities look like when expressed in public, as policy? This lead to, for example, how do we create a nurturing culture that welcomes those in need, and values elders for their experience. One of the co-leaders of this conference focused on the refugee flows we are now seeing, stating that it is just a glimpse of what is to come. Climate change and migration are intimately linked and we are going to see massive displacement of people caused by sea-level-rise and drought in the decades to come. How will we handle this crisis in a loving and humane way?

The reason this Canadian Manifesto is prefaced by the word Leap is that the changes are needed NOW. It is a word similar to Shock that has been employed to quickly make changes that governments and corporations prescribe. Policies are being made daily by governments worldwide, but especially by the United States (the current empire ruling the world) that can and do work against the freedom of and caring for individuals. We can choose to change this. As Naomi Klein has said, “let’s leap.”

 

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