THE POLITICS OF OVERWHELM: HOW INFORMATION OVERLOAD KEEPS US PASSIVE

Photo by Arthur Tess

Is it really a coincidence that so many of us feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of news at the moment? I doubt I’m the only one who barely has time to process one scandal, crisis, or political upheaval before the next one erupts.

In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explains how crises throughout history have been used to push through changes that would otherwise face resistance. When society is in turmoil, drastic decisions can be implemented with little debate. After Trump took office, we saw an extreme version of this play out in the media: a relentless stream of shocking headlines, contradictory narratives, and abrupt political shifts, all contributing to a sense of cognitive exhaustion.

When everything feels like a crisis and no one knows what to focus on, it becomes easier for those in power to push their agendas forward. Klein argues that neoliberal reforms - privatization, deregulation, and welfare cuts - have often been introduced not through democratic consensus but in moments of chaos. In a state of shock, we are far more likely to accept radical changes than we would under normal circumstances.

She calls this "disaster capitalism" - a model in which corporations and governments view crises as business opportunities rather than tragedies to be prevented or mitigated. This creates a vicious cycle: every new catastrophe becomes a chance to push through market reforms that benefit a small elite, often at the expense of the majority. And it doesn’t stop at legislation or economic policy.

An overwhelming flood of information can have the same effect as a shock. Klein’s ideas build on psychological experiments by researcher Ewen Cameron, who used sensory deprivation and conflicting information to erase memories and disrupt thought patterns.

Applied to politics and media, we see similar effects:

- Decision paralysis: When everything seems equally urgent, it becomes difficult to know what to prioritize, making it harder to grasp the consequences of policy changes.

- Diminished critical reflection: Information overload weakens our ability to question power structures and recognize manipulation.

- Normalization of chaos: When every new scandal, crisis, or reform feels equally complex and impenetrable, it becomes easier to passively accept them as just “the way things are now".

Does this feel familiar? If we apply this theory to what’s happening now - how social media and the news cycle create a constant sense of crisis and uncertainty - it suggests that this flood of information may not be accidental. Instead, it could be a deliberate strategy to push through rapid changes with minimal resistance while we, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information, remain almost paralyzed.

Information has always been a source of power, but now even its excess has become a tool to preserve that power. So who stands to gain from us being exhausted, divided, and disoriented? And how do we reclaim our ability to understand, question, and take action?