For me one of the most useful things I've read on neoliberal thought is Naomi Klein's point in The Shock Doctrine that neoliberalism's aim is to remove the entire economic field from political contestation. Economics has been solved; therefore the only remaining political question is how best to serve the market. Basically all recent interventions by centrist figures, whether it's Abundance or establishment Dems freaking out about Mamdani, are an attempt to protect that 'solved' economic doctrine from anyone who would seek to contest it.
Also as I've been reading The Uninhabitable Earth recently, Klein and Thompson's "sketch of a near-future in which climate change has been solved" seems literally utopian: an impossible vision, totally out of touch with reality. So many people in the elite simply do not understand (or won't allow themselves to acknowledge) how far things have already gone.
My favorite part is just how dumb and naive the elite neoliberal class is. They have absolutely no idea how, for instance, industrial production or agriculture works, what it’s like to work for a wage, how the healthcare system works (or doesn’t work, in the case of the US).
Nor do they have any interest in trying to incorporate some of the working class experience into their program in order to neutralize some of the simmering discontent among the public, a la FDR and the New Dealers.
We are living in a constant repeat of Lucille Bluth asking, “I mean it’s one banana, Michael, how much could it cost? Ten dollars?”
Just a reminder that the so-called "centrism" of Klein and Carney is a radical utopian project that, by design, created egregious levels of wealth inequality: neoliberalism. A "kinder, gentler" neoliberalism is a pipe dream!
For me one of the most useful things I've read on neoliberal thought is Naomi Klein's point in The Shock Doctrine that neoliberalism's aim is to remove the entire economic field from political contestation. Economics has been solved; therefore the only remaining political question is how best to serve the market. Basically all recent interventions by centrist figures, whether it's Abundance or establishment Dems freaking out about Mamdani, are an attempt to protect that 'solved' economic doctrine from anyone who would seek to contest it.
Also as I've been reading The Uninhabitable Earth recently, Klein and Thompson's "sketch of a near-future in which climate change has been solved" seems literally utopian: an impossible vision, totally out of touch with reality. So many people in the elite simply do not understand (or won't allow themselves to acknowledge) how far things have already gone.
My favorite part is just how dumb and naive the elite neoliberal class is. They have absolutely no idea how, for instance, industrial production or agriculture works, what it’s like to work for a wage, how the healthcare system works (or doesn’t work, in the case of the US).
Nor do they have any interest in trying to incorporate some of the working class experience into their program in order to neutralize some of the simmering discontent among the public, a la FDR and the New Dealers.
We are living in a constant repeat of Lucille Bluth asking, “I mean it’s one banana, Michael, how much could it cost? Ten dollars?”
Just a reminder that the so-called "centrism" of Klein and Carney is a radical utopian project that, by design, created egregious levels of wealth inequality: neoliberalism. A "kinder, gentler" neoliberalism is a pipe dream!