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Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems
Financial meltdown, environmental disaster and even the rise of Donald Trump neoliberalism has played its part in them all. Why has the left failed to come up with an alternative?
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 youll 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?
Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power. It has played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which the Panama Papers offer us merely a glimpse, the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump. But we respond to these crises as if they emerge in isolation, apparently unaware that they have all been either catalysed or exacerbated by the same coherent philosophy; a philosophy that has or had a name. What greater power can there be than to operate namelessly?
So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwins theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.
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.
Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty.
Tax and regulation should be minimised, public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous: a reward for utility and a generator of wealth, which trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.
...cont'd
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
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 youll 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?
Its anonymity is both a symptom and cause of its power. It has played a major role in a remarkable variety of crises: the financial meltdown of 2007‑8, the offshoring of wealth and power, of which the Panama Papers offer us merely a glimpse, the slow collapse of public health and education, resurgent child poverty, the epidemic of loneliness, the collapse of ecosystems, the rise of Donald Trump. But we respond to these crises as if they emerge in isolation, apparently unaware that they have all been either catalysed or exacerbated by the same coherent philosophy; a philosophy that has or had a name. What greater power can there be than to operate namelessly?
So pervasive has neoliberalism become that we seldom even recognise it as an ideology. We appear to accept the proposition that this utopian, millenarian faith describes a neutral force; a kind of biological law, like Darwins theory of evolution. But the philosophy arose as a conscious attempt to reshape human life and shift the locus of power.
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.
Attempts to limit competition are treated as inimical to liberty.
Tax and regulation should be minimised, public services should be privatised. The organisation of labour and collective bargaining by trade unions are portrayed as market distortions that impede the formation of a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Inequality is recast as virtuous: a reward for utility and a generator of wealth, which trickles down to enrich everyone. Efforts to create a more equal society are both counterproductive and morally corrosive. The market ensures that everyone gets what they deserve.
...cont'd
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
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Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems (Original Post)
Lodestar
Apr 2016
OP
K and R! Too many people are not even aware of what the term neoliberalism means.
bbgrunt
Apr 2016
#2
FYI everybody, there's already an OP on this phenomenal, absolutely must read article here.
hedda_foil
Apr 2016
#5
Lodestar
(2,388 posts)1. Bernie Sanders IS a sign of this discontent with Neo-Liberalism and
the desire for an exploration of alternative forms of governance. But keeping the corporatists
from taking up positions of power while we go through this transition is very critical to the outcome.
bbgrunt
(5,281 posts)2. K and R! Too many people are not even aware of what the term neoliberalism means.
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)4. I don't call it Neoliberalism, I call it Vulture capitalism.
Lodestar
(2,388 posts)3. Video - The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein)
hedda_foil
(16,374 posts)5. FYI everybody, there's already an OP on this phenomenal, absolutely must read article here.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027759578
It's got 150 recs and lots of valuable comments, so whether you choose to comment here or there, I think it's very much worth your while to at least scan through the contributions of DUers who responded there.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)6. Recommend..