Neoclassical economics remains firmly entrenched in its academic fastnesses because it provides the high-brow ideological cover for the bankruptcy of the system, the greed of the super-rich, and the corruption of politicians who bail out bankers, cut wages, privatise hospitals, and persecute the poor. The real question is how they have got away with it. The answer is interesting. ... ... Mirowski writes of ‘the rise of the neoliberal agent’ in a world where the distinction between economics, society, politics, and culture have all broken down, and everything has become crystallised into two primary entities: ‘the market’ and the ‘entrepreneurial self’ (p.105 and passim). This is important stuff. It is about the mindset of modern humanity that underpins such phenomena as falling union membership, alienation from ‘politics’, suspicion of all ‘organisation’, and a generalised tendency to individualise problems, seek personal solutions, and remain oblivious to the social character of exploitation and oppression and the consequent need for collective responses. This leads back to the central question: how to explain the durability of neoliberalism despite its obvious empty-headedness and its transparent failure as a guide to social action. Mirowski’s answer is that neoliberalism is now hard-wired into the psyche and everyday behaviour of the mass of humanity.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 20:39:22 +0000
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