Dennis Loo; Globalization and the Demolition of Society

Dennis Loo, author, Globalization and the demolition of society.

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his is a powerful and timely book. Globalization and the Demolition of Society is sophisticated and subtle yet hard-hitting. Loo has a gift for precision, close analysis, and synthesis conveyed in a manner akin to the unfolding of a richly textured story. Without expressly intending to do so, he also tells a very personal story as he unwraps the tale of not two cities but two worlds in motion and fierce contention.  Â
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There are actually many books residing in this one; the book is a feast for the mind and the spirit. The individual chapters could each form the core of a separate book by itself, presented in a highly concentrated, yet decidedly readable form in this edition. Each chapter builds towards the next but each chapter stands on its own and can be read by itself. (See Table of Contents right sidebar and also Excerpts from Globalization and the Demolition of Society tab above.)

Loo, as an editor has described it, "takes what might seem like scattered disturbing developments in politics and places them in the context of larger, identifiable trends in history." The evidence, analogies, and mode of discussion in this book bring concepts and theory alive. He uses and explains theory so well that it is as if the theory he is scrutinizing is an actual concrete object in his hand. He hones in on the essence of a phenomenon or concept and then artfully examines its various facets and connections to other processes and entities. In so doing, he manages to be both concise and uncommonly comprehensive. After reading this book you will not see the world in the same way. You will feel both provoked and more empowered. His willingness and ability to speak the truth is precious in these times of profound troubles. Â

As Loo states in his Introduction:

"We have to know what is real in all of its complexity and fluidity if we want to change reality. We have to use theoretical and conceptual tools that mirror reality well and that give us the ability to turn necessity into forms of freedom. Poor conceptual and theoretical tools blind us to what is actually going on. This book is thus not only about what is happening around us, about phenomena and the sources of those phenomena, but also about rejecting theoretical models that obscure our ability to grasp what is really happening."
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The shortest possible way to describe this book's subject is that it is a robust critique of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is sometimes referred to as free market fundamentalism. It is "liberalism" in the Adam Smith sense of the term of liberating or unleashing market forces as the panacea for all things.Â

Loo's central argument is that neoliberal policies by their very nature and logic relentlessly undermine security, thus fostering ever-grander disasters, on the micro and macro levels. Not only is this because some of these disasters are being deliberately triggered (as Naomi Klein has argued) but also because neoliberalism's nature leads inevitably to inadvertent disasters (such as the BP Gulf of Mexico catastrophe). As he writes in Chapter Three:Â

"The worst and most alarming news here, in other words, is not that 9/11 was an inside job, a grand conspiracy hatched within the highest US government echelons. It is instead that 9/11 and other disasters such as the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe are due to the normal and ordinary workings of capitalism, and specifically neoliberal policies. "

Loo points out that neoliberalism further creates the need for states to employ ever more mass deception and coercion  - including the use of state terror- regardless of which political party is in power, as it systematically undermines the basis for people to voluntarily co-operate. (See especially Chapters Three and Four.)
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