Overview

The film explores how catastrophes—wars, coups, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters—create states of emergency that ruling powers exploit. Drawing from 9/11, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and the Jakarta Method, it argues that shocks are used to re-engineer societies, suppress dissent, and consolidate imperial and capitalist power. Testimonies from filmmakers, historians, and scholars illustrate how violence reshapes both nations and worldviews.

1) Shocks as Turning Points

• Definition: Disasters (natural or man-made) destabilize societies, opening pathways for change—but also for opportunism and exploitation.
• Examples:
  • Wars, hyperinflation, massacres.
  • 9/11 as a “world-rewiring” event, enabling U.S. expansion of bases and surveillance.
  • U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and later Libya, Syria, and Yemen framed as “liberation” but serving geopolitical aims.

2) Iraq War as Case Study

• Filmmaker James Longley (Iraq in Fragments) describes early post-2003 Iraq:
  • Collapse of government → rampant crime, impossible daily life.
  • Even a disliked regime like Saddam’s provided stability; its destruction left a vacuum.
• U.S. invasion rationale: Allegations of WMDs and links to al-Qaeda.
• Reality: No serious planning for aftermath, showing indifference to Iraqi well-being.
• Liberation rhetoric masked broader strategic interests.

3) The Jakarta Method (Vincent Bevins)

• Origin: 1965 Indonesia—U.S.-backed military killed ~1M accused leftists.
• Branded “a success” and model for authoritarian allies worldwide.
• Exported elsewhere:
  • Chile (1973 coup against Allende): Graffiti “Jakarta is coming” signaled mass killings to come.
  • Pinochet’s regime: ~3,000 deaths used to terrorize the rest into submission.
• Logic:
  • Kill/disappear a targeted minority to instill fear in the majority.
  • “Disappearances” (people taken, never returned) paralyze communities into obedience.

4) Natural Disasters and Exploitation