After Neoliberalism.

[Mindful]

All That Is Solid ...: After Neoliberalism

 

[Mindful]

To properly get to grips with neoliberalism, we should think about it on three levels. The first is economic policy, which we've already talked about. The other two, that interest us here, is the intertwining of government and subjectivity. Condensing Dardot and Laval's arguments, the incremental adoption of neoliberal strategies have resulted in what they call the 'entrepreneurial state'. Take Britain for example. As society has become more complex, so has the state. The classical Marxist conception of the state as a repressive body that defends and prosecutes capital's interests is right on a basic level, but doesn't capture the complexity of the body as it exists today. Rather than a unitary institution with an executive, a bureaucracy, and its repressive arms the state has developed into a more dispersed and diffuse gaggle of semi-autonomous institutions. In the British example, from Thatcher onwards the physicality of the state is distributed among a number of bureaucracies with areas of competence, each under a particular minister and therefore responsible to the government of the day. Think the DWP and its previous iterations, the MOD, the Education Dept, and so on. Each are operationally autonomous from one another but are united under a relationship of command to the executive. As well as this, we have the devolved administrations and local government, and any number of Quangos with areas of competence and specialism. On top of this there are subdivisions in each of these institutions, and various non-governmental organisations like charities, community groups, and so on can be incorporated into the mix. What they all have in common is the sharing of governance functions. Or, rather, they specialise in a particular kind of population management.

 

[midcan5]

If there were a Gobbledygook award that would win first prize. So many words so little sense. It read like a puzzle in which the pieces were in the wrong place. Can anyone summarize what this was all about. Two or three sentences of clarification.

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory." Whatever

 

[Mindful]

If there were a Gobbledygook award that would win first prize. So many words so little sense. It read like a puzzle in which the pieces were in the wrong place. Can anyone summarize what this was all about. Two or three sentences of clarification.

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry. In consequence, we have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, we have no theory." Whatever

For someone who didn't know what it was about(it was rather long; did you read it all?) you certainly wrote a lot about it.

 

[Iceweasel]

I think there are easier ways to express the thoughts. Bottom line, the bigger government gets the more oppressive it will become. It's like a business that wants to grow into a monopoly. Once you have total control over the market you call all the shots. And we know how that ends up. Poorer service, higher prices and less innovation.

That's why I am a conservative, smaller less intrusive government and a free market when and where possible.

 

[Tehon]

All That Is Solid ...: After Neoliberalism

Did you have a particular point to make in sharing the blog post? What would you wish for the reader to glean from it? Perhaps you think neoliberalism has run its course. That would be a mistake.

 

[Mindful]

All That Is Solid ...: After Neoliberalism

Did you have a particular point to make in sharing the blog post? What would you wish for the reader to glean from it? Perhaps you think neoliberalism has run its course. That would be a mistake.

Perhaps I don't

And I wonder what the outcome will be.

 

[bendog]

Long, but comprehensive, and a solid conclusion.

"And so the new post-neoliberal managerialism is born with an obvious contradiction. A popular participatory capitalism overseen by a surveilling, authoritarian state: an institution that acts as guarantor for capital's continuation in the face of its partial socialisation. Especially as the governance and subjection associated with this possible mutation in capitalism takes us much closer to socialism than the post-war settlement and the Soviet nightmare."

That's not totally unlike what we've been seeing evolve over the past 16 years. Of course it doesn't account for particularities of American budgetary or foreign policy/terrorism policy, but the gop elite's biggest fear is encroaching socialist views by a majority.