Neoliberalism Has Radicalized a Whole Generation
Profile image of Michael BloombergDemocratic presidential candidate and
former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during a Jan. 2020 event
in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky / AP)
When the conversation veered toward "capitalism" and "socialism" at last
week's Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, the preeminent
capitalist on the stage, Michael Bloomberg, could hardly believe what he was
hearing. "I can't think of a way that would make it easier for Donald Trump
to get reelected than listening to this conversation," lamented billionaire
Bloomberg, who pronounced the discussion ridiculous. "We're not going to
throw out capitalism," he said. "We tried that. Other countries tried that.
It was called communism, and it just didn't work."
Ten, or even five, years ago, Bloomberg's concern would have probably seemed
justified. In the recent past, having a serious discussion about the
benefits of socialism versus capitalism on American national television -
and at a major presidential debate, no less - appeared almost inconceivable.
For as long as many Americans have been alive, capitalism has been widely
considered the natural order of things. Questioning its existence seemed not
only wrong but woefully naive and dangerous.
Since the Cold War began in the mid-20th century, the United States has been
viewed as the center of the capitalist world. After the collapse of the
Soviet Union, capitalism seemed to have triumphed once and for all, ending
the historical struggle between the competing ideologies that characterized
modernity (hence the notion of the "end of history"). There was no more
questioning capitalism, which had proved to be the economic system that
corresponded most with human nature. (At least that's what orthodox
economists, who subscribed to the homo economicus, or "economic man," model
of human nature, told us.)
In his 2009 book, "Capitalist Realism," the late author Mark Fisher
described a certain pessimistic attitude on the left, captured by the
popular saying: "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to
imagine the end of capitalism." Capitalist realism, Fisher wrote, was the
"widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and
economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a
coherent alternative to it."
In the decade-plus since Fisher wrote these words, a great deal has changed.
Though it is still hard to imagine the end of capitalism, it is no longer
universally accepted that capitalism is simply part of the "natural" order,
or that there is "no alternative" (as the United Kingdom's former prime
minister, Margaret Thatcher, famously proclaimed). The armor of
neoliberalism was first pierced by the global financial crisis, and the rise
of populist movements on both the left and right in the years since have
further eroded the political and intellectual hegemony of the
all-encompassing worldview.
Neoliberalism wasn't even acknowledged as an actual ideology until fairly
recently. In fact, many neoliberals continue to deny its very existence. As
scholar Adam Kotsko notes in his book, "Neoliberalism's Demons,"
neoliberalism "loves to hide" and its "very invisibility is a measure of its
power." Neoliberalism, according to Kotsko, is more than just a set of
economic policies that have been implemented throughout the world in the
last half-century. Rather, it "aspires to be a complete way of life and a
holistic worldview, in a way that previous models of capitalism did not."
For this reason, Kotsko describes neoliberalism not just as an ideology but
as a form of "political theology."
In neoliberalism, Kotsko remarks,
an account of human nature where economic competition is the highest value
leads to a political theology where the prime duty of the state is to
enable, and indeed mandate, such competition, and the result is a world
wherein individuals, firms, and states are all continually constrained to
express themselves via economic competition. This means that neoliberalism
tends to create a world in which neoliberalism is 'true.'
The very fact that we are now discussing neoliberalism, Kotsko writes, is a
"sign that its planetary sway is growing less secure." As the "planetary
sway" of neoliberalism has weakened over the past decade, more and more
people - especially young people who were born and raised in the neoliberal
era - have started to question a system that has left their generation
drowning in debt, burned out and mentally exhausted, and stuck in an endless
loop of precarious uncertainty.
Neoliberal ideas, political scientist Lester Spence writes, "radically
change what it means to be human, as the perfect human being now becomes an
entrepreneur of his own human capital, responsible for his personal
development." Young people entering the workforce today are expected to
cheerfully embrace their own alienation and the commodification of their
whole existence. Under neoliberalism, citizens become producers/consumers
who are "free" to participate in the market economy but not necessarily free
to engage in political protest or to form unions.
Neoliberalism is the opposite of solidarity. It encourages an extreme form
of selfish individualism that ends up depoliticizing the populace and
eroding the collective spirit of democracy. It also leaves the individual
isolated and alone. "In a brutal, competitive, and atomized society, psychic
well-being is so difficult that success on this front can feel like a
significant accomplishment," observes political theorist Jodi Dean. "Trying
to do it themselves, people are immiserated and proletarianized and confront
this immiseration and proletarianization alone."
Considering the hellish reality that it has created for so many people, the
backlash against neoliberalism was as predictable as it was inevitable. In a
real sense, neoliberalism has radicalized an entire generation, pushing many
young people to revolt against the existing order as a whole. The fact that
the Democratic Party's likely presidential nominee (especially after his
landslide victory in Nevada) is self-professed democratic socialist Bernie
Sanders tells us that the secular religion of neoliberalism has quickly lost
all credibility and authority.
During the Cold War, under the threat of communism, America and other
capitalist countries in the West embraced social democratic reforms that
played an essential role in curbing the more extreme contradictions of
capitalism. This led to a less brutal and unequal system, and therefore a
more stable one. When communism fell in the late 20th century, the
neoliberal age was already in full swing, with both parties uniting to
reverse many of the progressive reforms that had been enacted after the
Great Depression. Now, after 40 years of neoliberalism, the worst
contradictions have returned, and unsurprisingly, mass movements opposing
the current system also have returned.
When Bloomberg's tenure as mayor of New York City came to an end in 2013, a
few years after the Great Recession, it was already clear the neoliberal era
was on its last legs. Bloomberg used the New York Police Department (the
world's "seventh largest army," he once boasted) to crush Occupy Wall Street
in 2011, but the spirit of the movement could not be crushed. On the debate
stage almost a decade later, Bloomberg's neoliberal talking points no longer
sounded like Thatcherist truisms.
Sanders began his "political revolution" in 2016, and he is clearly still
leading it in 2020. For most people in the halls of power, his electoral
success has come as an utter shock. "Something is happening in America right
now that actually does not fit our mental models," remarked journalist Anand
Giridharadas on MSNBC after Sanders' big win in Nevada. The donor class, the
media elites and those in the political establishment, Giridharadas said,
are behaving like "out-of-touch aristocrats in a dying aristocracy." While
18th and 19th century aristocrats in Europe were coming to terms with the
collapse of monarchism after it was undermined by the radical critiques of
enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau, today's elites are dealing with the
collapse of neoliberalism, the ruling ideology for the past half-century.
There's little doubt that elites will do whatever they can to stop Sanders
from winning the Democratic nomination and perhaps the general election.
Although they are less likely to succeed after Nevada, it is unwise to
underestimate the reactionary impulses of a dying aristocracy (the Bloomberg
campaign is already plotting its brokered convention strategy). Regardless
of what happens in the next few weeks, one thing is absolutely clear: The
neoliberal worldview that has dominated the discourse for decades is being
consigned to the dustbin of history.
Conor Lynch
Conor Lynch is a freelance writer and journalist living in New York. His
work has appeared in The Week, Salon, The New Republic, and other
publications. You can follow him on Twitter.
Conor Lynch
