Naomi Klein gets her ego stroked at the NYPL

Seizing on the admittedly flimsy excuse of Naomi Klein having, at one time, been the editor of This Magazine, we present Gawker's account of Klein at the New York Public Library on Monday night, promoting her new book The Shock Doctrine, in front of a sympathetic crowd.

How could anyone even vaguely familiar with Naomi's credentials or latest book's thesis not know that last night's event would be full of the kind of classic New York elderliberals who like to applaud when anyone says anything negative about Bush and holler back encouragingly at public speakers as if they are back at the Union rally of their heyday? (Also: bless these people, for serious). But anyone who attended last night's event looking for anything remotely resembling dissent or debate would have been disappointed. And there is something sort of inherently boring about sitting in a room full of people who all feel exactly the same way.