Kdaum2011
Joined: 15 Nov 2010
Posts: 19
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 Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:50 am Post subject: |
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So as I sorta promised: A quote from Noam Chomsky's Profit over People form the forward written by Robert W. McChesney
"Indeed, any activity that might interfere with corporate domination of society is automatically suspect because it would interfere with the workings of the free market, which is advanced as the only rational, fair, and democratic allocator of goods and services. At their most eloquent, proponents of neoliberalism sound as if they are doing poor people, the environment, and everybody else a tremendous service as they enact policies on behalf o the wealthy few. The economic consequences of these policies have been the same just about everywhere, and exactly what one would expect: a massive increase in social and economic inequality"
In posting this I'm not looking at the comment on service to poor people portion, but the implications that Neo Liberalism, a supposed final step in society, has left the majority of the world in poor condition, conditions that Marx would argue ripe for revolution. Just by this observation, I find it hard to believe Fukuyama's point that Western Free Market Liberalism has marked itself in history as the final socioeconomic ideology to be instituted (once and for all).
"In the end, neoliberals cannot and do not offer an empirical defense for the world they are making. To contrary, they offer--no, demand--a religious faith in the infallibility of the unregulated market, that draws upon nineteenth century theories that have little connection to the actual world The ultimate trump card for the defenders of neoliberalism, however, is that there is no alternative. Communist societies, social democracies, and even modest social welfare states like the United States have all failed, the neoliberals proclaim, and their citizens have accepted neoliberalism as the only feasible course. It may well be imperfect, but it is the only economic system possible."
I find Fukuyama's comment that "the willingness to risk one's life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide ideological struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination and idealism, will be replaced by economic calculation... and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands "(177) interesting considering modern socialists would argue that this very apathetic conclusion to Fukuyama's history is actually caused by his so called final ideological form...
"In sum, neoliberalism is the immediate and foremost enemy of genuine participatory democracy, not just in the United States, but across the planet, and will be for the foreseeable future"
Though the agreement to the course of history based on neoliberlism between both writers is nice, one sees Neoliberalism as the cause, and history's end as the effect, while Fukuyama sees an underlying natural progression (or maybe a priori designation in man?) as the cause and the effect Neoliberalism AND the end of history.
This man makes me mad |
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