/lit/ - Literature

"Neoliberalism" is just a buzzword that both the far-left and the far-right use to capitalise on people's discontent

>>16417879
And why are people discontent?

>>16417884
People can be discontent for a variety of reasons

>>16417891
Oh, okay, thanks.

GRAPH DO GOODER THEREFORE WORLD BETTER

>>16417884
They're losers like pic related

>>16417884
Because social media incentivises an outrage culture that creates negative feedback loops

>>16417870
>Hasn't poverty gone done in the last few decades, aren't people richer and more healthy?
Wealth inequality is going up, meaning people have less autonomy and social power overall. Plus job security, home ownership, youth employment etc. getting raped. Jobs going overseas. Complete erosion of community life.

>>16417870
i wrote a blog post about this, gonna share for relevance's sake/could always use feedback and criticism.

basically, i argue that neoliberalism robs the world of a certain type of "glory" that is an otherwise vital political resource. neoliberalism turns "ambition" into something like a "resume-sheet"--this, in turn, depletes attempts to pursue the "good life" of any collective or philosophical value. neoliberalism pretty much depletes the political world of any resource that would contribute to something like an idea of the "sacred":

pykewater.com/catiline-conspiracy/2020/9/9/neoliberalism-and-the-loss-of-gloryambition

come at me, bros.

>>16417920
>people have less autonomy and social power overall

When before in human history were people in their teens and early 20s given such a vast platform like social media today to have their voice heard? If anything politicians are pandering more than ever before because people have more social power. Political institutions have never been weaker.

>>16417947
Illusion of social power is worse than no social power at all

>>16417947
I mean the portion of their stake and monetary power in the polis is tangibly reduced from what it was. Literally the proportionate amount of money, labour power, etc.

>>16417956
I don't think its an illusion though. If you polled the top 100 richest Americans on the election in 2016 I don't think Trump, for example, will fare very well. I doubt any prior American election would have such a big gulf in support amongst elites. Establishment institutions, both political and culture are weaker than they've ever been.

>>16417969
>Establishment institutions, both political and culture are weaker than they've ever been.

>>16417947
Social media is an illusion of power, not actual power.

Also, the idea that politicians are pandering to people on social media is utterly delusional. If they did we'd have UBI, the fossil fuel industry would be dead, and we would have no billionaires, hence the illusion of power.

>>16417922
>"glory"
>"the good life"
>"the sacred"
>militaristic painting of a bloody battle
>picture of an Orthodox priest
We get it - life was so good, sacred and glorious in the past, amirite?
Another cardboard cutout neo-right LARPer

>>16417922
Without even reading I already know that what you're trying to articulate is that neoliberalism reduces the human achievement to mere logistical results in a material operation, instead of allowing some sort of cultural, community-building, civilization-conserving immaterial value that lasts longer than that.

Read through your article and you refer to other authors too much, get control over that, it's annoying after a while.

>>16417983

not even close, you fucking retard. i'm the exact, leftist alternative to that trad bullshit.

jesus fucking christ, either read and then comment, or don't fucking read, don't comment, and don't announce yourself as a useless cunt

SMART

>>16417947
Social media has had absolutely no tangible effect on the status quo

>>16417987
close. it's more that the resources for self-production that developed around the time of the renaissance (according to burkhardt, for instance) have now run dry.

so, yes, it's about the lack of a valuable existential principle, but more the fallout viz. the ability of individuals to realize "ambition" as an aspect of self-creation. other aspects of hegelian mutual recognition/sacrifice i think collapse in wake, though i don't fully explore that there.

i do not think that neoliberalism enables individuals to actually explore the capacity to become an individual--that it does this by way of eliminating "civilization-conserving immateriality" i think is definitely fair but maybe a little reductionist.

>>16417969
The government is merely a tool of the elites to exact their whims on the governed. Haven't you noticed by now that most "democracies" around the world are two party states where both parties differ on insignificant social policies but unanimously pass legislations which benefit sponsors regardless of how much it fucks up the people?

>>16417870
Why would neoliberalism be responsible for this worldwide trend? The greatest poverty reduction achievements have occured in China, and they sure as hell aren't neoliberal or anything close to it

>>16418026
>The greatest poverty reduction achievements have occured in China, and they sure as hell aren't neoliberal or anything close to it
Weren't Deng Xiaoping's reforms influenced by neoliberalism?

>>16417870
>aren't people richer and more healthy?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330161/
>Mental and physical well-being are intimately related. The growing burden of chronic diseases, which arise from an evolutionary mismatch between past human environments and modern-day living, may be central to rising rates of depression. Declining social capital and greater inequality and loneliness are candidate mediators of a depressiogenic social milieu. Modern populations are increasingly overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, and socially-isolated. These changes in lifestyle each contribute to poor physical health and affect the incidence and treatment of depression. The review ends with a call for future research and policy interventions to address this public health crisis.

Don't worry about plummeting birth rates and a youth in perpetual financial despair, The Economy (pbuh) is doing really well!

The economy is unironically fake

>>16417922
Just sounds like the age-old tune of modernity killing the end-in-itself but dressed up in reactionary words. That's not to say you're wrong, because I think you're right, but that it is a pretty unoriginal take. Banality notwithstanding, it's still important to hammer that point home again and again, because there are literal bugs who unironically do not understand the concept of an end-in-itself, but fuck it, just saw your piece isn't that long, so I'm gonna read it.

>basically, i argue that neoliberalism robs the world of a certain type of "glory" that is an otherwise vital political resource. neoliberalism turns "ambition" into something like a "resume-sheet"--this, in turn, depletes attempts to pursue the "good life" of any collective or philosophical value. neoliberalism pretty much depletes the political world of any resource that would contribute to something like an idea of the "sacred":