Naming & Shaming Neoliberalism

[jesse_the_k]

I like to think of myself as "politically aware." Yet this kick-ass editorial in The Guardian (UK) opened my eyes to the continuity of "neoliberalism."

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Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you know what it is?
[...snip...]
Neoliberalism sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling, a process that rewards merit and punishes inefficiency. It maintains that “the market” delivers benefits that could never be achieved by planning.

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end quote

That's George Monbiot, a leftish advocate, neatly summarizing the shit we're in.

TL;DR The systematic destruction of government responsibility & support for citizens; privatization; deteriorating mental health; support for demagogues; outright denial of environmental disasters.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot

Comments

[laurashapiro]

Great article! Thanks for linking.

[jesse_the_k]

Glad you liked it. It put the pieces together for me (and the whole picture is fucking scary).

[laurashapiro]

Agreed, 100%. It's also a great reminder of how important it is to name things.

[gloss]

I can't recommend David Harvey's A Brief History of Neoliberalism *enough*, btw. It's absolutely fantastic.

[jesse_the_k]

Super! I needed this rec.

[capri0mni]

I've been running across (into) the word "Neoliberalism" more often, now that I'm delving into the academic side of Disability Studies, especially in the context of welfare reform -- the value of a human being, and whether they deserve support services, and access to community all comes down to how well they can be integrated into the capitalist economic model.

One article I read this summer (Downloaded from Academia.edu) is: "Desiring Disability Differently: Neoliberalism, Heterotopic Imagination and Intracorporeal
Reconfigurations" (yeah... it's in a philosophy journal, which seems to require an average five syllables per word -- long words in the subtitle basically translate to: "imagining different spaces, and changing how we think about bodies in relation to each other").

But I was particularly by this sentence:

"It seems to be easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due to some weakness in our imaginations.”

Because... yeah.

[jesse_the_k]

That quote is too damn true. Got the paper: If I get stuck at the fourth syllable, can I ask you for decoding help?

Along the way I found this paper:
https://www.academia.edu/23908958/Fuck_Neoliberalism

with the snappy intro:

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Fuck neoliberalism. That's my blunt message. I could probably end my discussion at this point and it wouldn't really matter. My position is clear and you likely already get the gist of what I want to say.

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end quote

[capri0mni]

If I get stuck at the fourth syllable, can I ask you for decoding help?

Be my guest!

LOL at your chosen quote.