On the Dangers of Neoliberalism (Books)

[allodial]

Many are taught the fallacy of the American states having been founded upon late 1600s to late 1700s radical liberal or neo-liberal thinkers or ideas from Locke or Thomas Paine when such was far from the truth. It does seem that the same neoliberalism aka neoconservatism has been lurking in the shadows and manipulating the World Scene for a long time. Clearly, there is behind all of that a cohesive, philosophy or religious paradigm. It seems that the same aims to bring Dystopian reality to the planet Earth.








The Fragility of Things: Self-Organizing Processes, Neoliberal Fantasies, and Democratic Activism - In The Fragility of Things, eminent theorist William E. Connolly focuses on several self-organizing ecologies that help to constitute our world. These interacting geological, biological, and climate systems, some of which harbor creative capacities, are depreciated by that brand of neoliberalism that confines self-organization to economic markets and equates the latter with impersonal rationality. Neoliberal practice thus fails to address the fragilities it exacerbates.


Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism's Stealth Revolution - Neoliberal rationality -- ubiquitous today in statecraft and the workplace, in jurisprudence, education, and culture -- remakes everything and everyone in the image of homo oeconomicus. What happens when this rationality transposes the constituent elements of democracy into an economic register? In Undoing the Demos, Wendy Brown explains how democracy itself is imperiled. The demos disintegrates into bits of human capital; concerns with justice bow to the mandates of growth rates, credit ratings, and investment climates; liberty submits to the imperative of human capital appreciation; equality dissolves into market competition; and popular sovereignty grows incoherent.


The Council on Foreign Relations is the most influential foreign-policy think tank in the United States, claiming among its members a high percentage of government officials, media figures, and establishment elite. For decades it kept a low profile even while it shaped policy, advised presidents, and helped shore up U.S. hegemony following the Second World War. In 1977, Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter published the first in-depth study of the CFR, Imperial Brain Trust, an explosive work that traced the activities and influence of the CFR from its origins in the 1920s through the Cold War.

In this period the capitalist dystopia was a respected left wing "cultural strategy" and its dominance endured till around 1993 which, coincidentally or not, was the time of the fall of the old left and the rise of neoliberalism. The dystopian narratives which are currently consuming the minds of millions of teens worldwide are now communicating right-wing ideas. (Source)

Related:

• The Neoliberal Bait-and-Switch
• Neocons and Neoliberals: Two Masks, One Face
• Neoliberalism As Creative Destruction (prezi presentation)
• Neoliberalism As Creative Destruction (David Harvey - PDF)
• Neoliberalism and The Hunger Games
• YA Dystopias Teach Children to Submit to the Free Market, Not {Question} "Authority"

[allodial]

{Error perhaps? Perhaps it is not about private vs public wealth it is simply hoarding and stealing by the few at the expense of all others?}


not a mere technical implement for law enforcement but a core political institution.


This book explores the origins of the so-called "punitive turn" in penal policy across Western nations over the past two decades. It demonstrates how the context of neoliberalism has informed penal policy-making and argues that it is ultimately neoliberalism which has led to the recent intensification of punishment.

[David Merrill]

I am enjoying your posts above, Allodial. I of course overlay my genome heritage being that the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions Granted to Patroons was in 1629.

With George WASHINGTON being crowned on the steps of the New York Masonic Lodge, and in the same breath continuing the Charter for Peter VAN PELT, freedom from American Manorial Law, it might become obvious that this neoliberalism is quite contrary to the founding structural intent. But then, it might be quite clear that the Masons are behind it?

I think the prior, for now. Calling Masons liberals is not a very good fit. And with METRO organization forming on clouds of virtual machinery through electronic-speed technology as the Masons grow whiter and die off much faster than any interest by the youth it would truly seem that neoliberalism is a Baby-Boomer backlash of some sort.

The repossession of A-China-Ca, as I depicted it at the beginning of this website (see the Articles) is so heavily underway that the books analyzing this migration of collection on the national debt seem such a waste. This take, and labeling it Neoliberalism might be a good way to break it out into bite-size pieces though. I purchased my Mandarin Chinese language lesson disks a moment before being absorbed by my appetite, and albeit tasty, was a little disappointed in myself for choosing Mexican cuisine.

[allodial]

I think the prior, for now. Calling Masons liberals is not a very good fit. And with METRO organization forming on clouds of virtual machinery through electronic-speed technology as the Masons grow whiter and die off much faster than any interest by the youth it would truly seem that neoliberalism is a Baby-Boomer backlash of some sort.

"Baby Boomer backlash" ... very interesting notion ->



Also, from the site which features that image:

It is well known that Baby Boomers and their successors, especially Generation Xers, do not see eye to eye. One commentator suggests that popular elections of the new Millennium's mid-teens will reflect a battle of generational interests. Boomers would have benefited from reaching out to their predecessors and their successors; but the media picture of them is one of a cohort who defined themselves by setting themselves apart from other age groups. Those age boundaries may ironically come back to haunt them.

We have far to go before we see the full implications of today's generation wars. Some Boomers have only in the past few months discovered that their generation is widely and increasingly despised. They react to vitriolic attacks with hostility, puzzlement and surprise. If today's online comments are anything to go by, Boomers face harsh retributions and social vulnerability once they head into their 80s. Even their power to sway elections may not mean much in the face of the coming generational backlash.

The backlash is mostly sparked by fears of downward mobility. This critique of Boomers, including a rigid and one-dimensional view of their youthful history, is gaining momentum.

Boomers are not alone in failures and shortcomings. To pick a not-so-stellar Gen X example, consider Mireille Silcoff, a writer for Canada's conservative paper, The National Post. Her column on 10 November 2012 (p. wp12), was spent vaguely puzzling over the fact that she employs Gen Y workers in an constant stream of unpaid internships. And when one of her journalist interns was actually paid on a recent job, she was paid 20 cents per word, which "is less than I made per word 20 years ago." And publishers wonder why print media are dying?

I don't mean to pick on Silcoff specifically. But her acquiescence in, and bland ponderings about, a plainly toxic system of training and employment typifies individual choices made on a day-to-day basis; and these choices generate many greater ills. Mid-late 20th century and early Millennial work cultures have taken professions, occupations and trades back to pre-1830 levels. At least in the 18th and 19th centuries, apprentices were supposedly (but not always) given enough to keep themselves alive. If you can't pay your interns, your recommendation is not worth the paper on which it is printed, because you are exploiting and reinforcing attitudes that are part of a vast systemic malaise. Any employer could rethink their model rather than slide passively into quasi-benevolent exploitation. And if you can pay your interns, but don't bother because, 'that is the score, 'that is how the system is now,' 'that is how they learn the ropes, by starting at the bottom, etc. etc.,' how do you sleep at night?

This is the complacency of those who can and do pass the buck and dump the cost of their errors or shortcomings on anyone beneath them in the hierarchy. Equally culpable are those who recognize the problems but do little or nothing about them in terms of larger action. These attitudes are gutting anything that once made the pillars of industry and society worthwhile. Those worthwhile values were not entitlement, profit, material wealth and self-righteous exploitation of one's place in the hierarchy, but of mutual responsibility, duty, dignity and human decency. Nor is this simply a critique of capitalism. Soullessness is the heart of the problem and it equally plagues different political persuasions, our social behaviour and our bank accounts.

In short, Boomers are not the only ones to blame for the brutalization and impoverishment of politics, culture, the economy and society. We are all suffering, in different ways, from a loss in our ability to sympathize - with others, with ourselves. (Source)

***

The repossession of A-China-Ca, as I depicted it at the beginning of this website (see the Articles) is so heavily underway that the books analyzing this migration of collection on the national debt seem such a waste. This take, and labeling it Neoliberalism might be a good way to break it out into bite-size pieces though. I purchased my Mandarin Chinese language lesson disks a moment before being absorbed by my appetite, and albeit tasty, was a little disappointed in myself for choosing Mexican cuisine.

Neoliberalism seems to be a 'catch-all' term used to avoid actually saying what it really is or to avoid calling something what it really is. As for collecting on the national debt, the problem is that even that isn't necessarily what it seems to be. As in, 10 people owe Guido, but Guido is acting like its 10,000,000,000. Of course, Guido is hoping 9,999,999,990 will be stupid enough. Seems the odds are against Guido.

[David Merrill]

I was commenting on the books by their covers. However I think you confirmed it with the content, by the comment you quote.

Baby Boomer Backlash.

Learn the Language => Mandarin Chinese. I wasted a little time on Cantonese but it could come in handy. I did not anticipate that Beijing has become so toxic that this is where the Exodus originates. I should have and so I would be cracking the national code (Mandarin) much more effectively by now.

[allodial]

I was commenting on the books by their covers. However I think you confirmed it with the content, by the comment you quote.

Baby Boomer Backlash.

Learn the Language => Mandarin Chinese. I wasted a little time on Cantonese but it could come in handy. I did not anticipate that Beijing has become so toxic that this is where the Exodus originates. I should have and so I would be cracking the national code (Mandarin) much more effectively by now.

Believe it or not, I started learning Mandarin Chinese and Japanese about 20 years ago. I realized lots of interesting things were being hidden in plain sight (in Chinese and Japanese) but with the expectation that English speakers would never read it. There was a Japanese comic and cartoon called Golgol 13, no such thing would have aired on American TV back then--it took until 2005 or so until something even close to that aired (The Bourne Conspiracy series).

Golgo 13 Episode from ~1983, nothing quite like (not so poignant or 'raw') in the USA until after 2000.

Perhaps it had to do with family and circumstance, but it was always clear to me: the Japanese influence in the USA was far stronger than many cared to admit. In Japan, there is a social-economic-industrial order called a Keiretsu. I suspect that has relevance in the USA these days. Only recently in say, the USA, Australia and NZ has it become pop knowledge as to the interconnectedness of major corporations (now called "Alliance Capitalism). But, in Japan--



...its been long known as the Keiretsu (sounds a lot like "the estate/land" or "haaretz"). On the other hand, there was a book written called The Fable of the Keiretsu:

For Western economists and journalists, the most distinctive facet of the post-war Japanese business world has been the keiretsu, or the insular business alliances among powerful corporations. Within keiretsu groups, argue these observers, firms preferentially trade, lend money, take and receive technical and financial assistance, and cement their ties through cross-shareholding agreements. In The Fable of the Keiretsu, Yoshiro Miwa and J. Mark Ramseyer demonstrate that all this talk is really just urban legend.In their insightful analysis, the authors show that the very idea of the keiretsu was created and propagated by Marxist scholars in post-war Japan.

Interesting nonetheless. So maybe the Marxist-Communist-Capitalists were describing "the model". Fascinating how few people back in the 80s and 90s seemed to get the significance of major car companies and electronics companies in the USA being Japanese. Not to mention: major record labels also being Japanese (Sony, RCA, Toshiba, Panasonic fka Matsushita Electronic Industrial if anyone bothered looking at the fine print on the components, etc.). Not to mention, the World Trade Center itself was actually designed by a Japanese architect.





Nissan interestingly enough is a Hebrew/Phoenician/Chaldee word for the name of a month.

Nisan {also written Nissan} on the Assyrian calendar is the first month and on the Hebrew calendar is the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the civil year. The name of the month is Babylonian

China probably has some very interesting pre-1800s history.

Related:
The Chinese Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre

[xparte]

[xparte]

BretscherMasonicApostasyChrist (1).pdf google link

[BLBereans]

senpai: A keiretsu is a united front of hundreds of powerful companies, all acting in partnership to win.


kohai: To win what?


senpai: Whatever's there. You ever hear "business is war"? The war is never over. Maybe you heard "All's fair in love and war"?


kohai: No. So where does that leave us?


senpai: Us? We're in the war zone.

[BLBereans]

I think the prior, for now. Calling Masons liberals is not a very good fit. And with METRO organization forming on clouds of virtual machinery through electronic-speed technology as the Masons grow whiter and die off much faster than any interest by the youth it would truly seem that neoliberalism is a Baby-Boomer backlash of some sort.

"Baby-Boomer backlash" Backlash against what?

That notion is outright incredulous. If anything, the "boomers" should kneel down and kiss their parents asses for giving them a life exponentially better than they had it. Then again, the "greatest generation" has some blame too for spoiling their kids and not teaching them the same values and morals that got them through the depression and WWII.

When people do not teach their progeny morals, gratitude, work ethic and to NEVER forsake their Creator, no matter how "good" they think they have it, you get a selfish, ego-maniacal, narcissistic and amoral generation who discards everything that gave them the life they enjoy simply because they were spoiled, and persuaded through deception, that they should not "trust anyone over 30". Smoking plenty of weed didn't help them either.

The American "Keiretsu" knows how to push the right buttons in order to keep the "power" and "wealth" they worship.