Thank you for your article! This is one of the best short summaries of neoliberalism - “the main problem is the way the role of the state has changed in recent decades, becoming little more than an enforcer of corporate priorities.” I doubt that much will be changed, but we must hope.
In the Netherlands Mark Rutte's government is rushing to anchor the Covid measures in permanent public health law so that they can be deployed at any time in the future, again, at will, without any form of parliamentary oversight; a blank check for public health officials. What makes it all so egregious is the haste: they do not want to wait for any kind of formal evaluation of what the impact, both short- and long-term, unforeseen and otherwise, have been. We all just have to Trust The Science®
I see your diagnosis of the problem - as one not of the state (and its institutions) in itself but of malevolent influence of corporate interests - as too generous towards the state. The critiques you levelled at the pandemic response are easily made *in hindsight*; in the midst of the pandemic, *something* definitely had to be done. I see the pandemic response more of a case of “How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed” as the subtitle of James Scott’s book Seeing Like a State goes. Regardless, thank you for your insights.
it all comes down to people going along with propagandized narratives rather than their own intuition and common sense. A populace with the moral integrity of a weathervane will be abused by their own ignorance. Would the corporate capture of government matter in a society where self-governed “adults” set (i.e. recognized) the values and principles that they wanted to play and live by?
This comes over as blaming the victims. We shouldn't deny people agency, but likewise we cannot ignore that in our Western societies we have seen over the past century the rise of systems to shape and manipulate public opinion the subtlety and effectiveness of which we have probably never seen before in human history. They know exactly how to push peoples' buttons to get most of us to do exactly what they want. Whether peoples' gullibility or the manipulation came first is debatable; what's clear though is that there is a dialectical relation between the two. I do think that the power of the system is wearing off; it depends to a certain degree on peoples' trust, and that is evaporating, slowly but surely. A Great Awakening is surely underway...
"Whether peoples' gullibility or the manipulation came first is debatable; what's clear though is that there is a dialectical relation between the two." Can't argue with that... and for all we know that dialectic might be part and parcel of the "great awakening."
Thank you for your article! This is one of the best short summaries of neoliberalism - “the main problem is the way the role of the state has changed in recent decades, becoming little more than an enforcer of corporate priorities.” I doubt that much will be changed, but we must hope.
In the Netherlands Mark Rutte's government is rushing to anchor the Covid measures in permanent public health law so that they can be deployed at any time in the future, again, at will, without any form of parliamentary oversight; a blank check for public health officials. What makes it all so egregious is the haste: they do not want to wait for any kind of formal evaluation of what the impact, both short- and long-term, unforeseen and otherwise, have been. We all just have to Trust The Science®
I see your diagnosis of the problem - as one not of the state (and its institutions) in itself but of malevolent influence of corporate interests - as too generous towards the state. The critiques you levelled at the pandemic response are easily made *in hindsight*; in the midst of the pandemic, *something* definitely had to be done. I see the pandemic response more of a case of “How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed” as the subtitle of James Scott’s book Seeing Like a State goes. Regardless, thank you for your insights.
Still...
it all comes down to people going along with propagandized narratives rather than their own intuition and common sense. A populace with the moral integrity of a weathervane will be abused by their own ignorance. Would the corporate capture of government matter in a society where self-governed “adults” set (i.e. recognized) the values and principles that they wanted to play and live by?
This comes over as blaming the victims. We shouldn't deny people agency, but likewise we cannot ignore that in our Western societies we have seen over the past century the rise of systems to shape and manipulate public opinion the subtlety and effectiveness of which we have probably never seen before in human history. They know exactly how to push peoples' buttons to get most of us to do exactly what they want. Whether peoples' gullibility or the manipulation came first is debatable; what's clear though is that there is a dialectical relation between the two. I do think that the power of the system is wearing off; it depends to a certain degree on peoples' trust, and that is evaporating, slowly but surely. A Great Awakening is surely underway...
"Whether peoples' gullibility or the manipulation came first is debatable; what's clear though is that there is a dialectical relation between the two." Can't argue with that... and for all we know that dialectic might be part and parcel of the "great awakening."