Neo-liberalism
AS IS my wont, I share with my readers the ideological lens through which I view and analyze events. This year I will view them through the eyes of someone wanting both to expose neo-liberalism’s negative impact on the global village and its inhabitants and to promote a countervailing ideology.
In Cambridge University Professor George Monbiot’s book “How Did We Get Into This Mess?” he blames neo-liberalism for the current mess. This essentially consists in the ever-widening gap between a few rich and powerful top and the many poor and very poor bottom in spite of record growths in the production and sale of consumer goods.
It used to be that we had ideologues from the right or left and cent er. Right would be laissez-faire capitalists claiming absolute rights to private property and its benefits. Center would be democrats and slightly left would be socialists, both being the old 20th century liberals who advocate for a strong government that regulates capitalism and promotes the common good. At the extreme left, of course, are communists, capitalism’s arch enemy.
Today democrats, socialists, leftists and even communists are all adopting neo- liberalism that “transfers control of the economic factors from the public sector to the private sector.” It wants the least intervention by government in the conduct of private business and promotes through advertising for instant gratification and lobbying in government for favorable laws a hedonist culture that fuels the drive to consume more.
Unlimited growth in sales and profits is its golden calf and the way towards enjoying a fair share of this growth is ruthless competition.
It is immediately obvious how those who start in the race for the good life with less or no food, less or no house, less or no job, less or no health, less or no education, less or no physical wholeness (aged and handicapped) are easily left biting the dust churned up by stronger starter-competitors.
Neo-liberals either do not accept or pay only lip service to climate change as scientific truth. Otherwise, they would have to moderate their greed for the earth’s riches. (Why have we not heard from DENR Secretary Gina Lopez lately?)
Neo-liberals also do not mind a corrupt bureaucracy. They much prefer competing with peers in the bribery game to dealing with a strong government (Duterte’s?) that enforce obstacles to their unbridled drive for market growth through an honest and competent civil service. Only the poor who cannot afford bribes suffer from a corrupt bureaucracy.
Finally, regional wars are fueled not by political or religious differences but by neo-liberal nations (U.S., China, Russia, etc) competing for the riches of the earth wherever they can be found.