Haunted by specters

Bradley Gitz’s recent column “The new gospel” finds him haunted by the specter of communism, which he regards as the source of everything amiss in the world. Gitz must know that Marx sought to grasp the essence of a rapidly changing society and that Capital, his 19th century analysis of an industrializing world, could never capture the reality of the world today.

A current intellectual movement labeled “intersectionality” tries to capture it and seems to offer another specter to haunt Gitz. It’s a more sophisticated analysis of oppression and injustice based on a wide range of interrelated cultural attitudes and structures found in contemporary religion, education, language, class, race, gender, etc., in addition to economic exploitation noted by Marx.

Gitz labels these ideologies secular religions of false hope, with their own saints, scriptures, proselytizing clergy, murderous crusades, and totalitarian pretensions. Yet neoliberalism, which seems to be his faith, might be tarred with the same brush. F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman stand at the apex of its prophets. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and The Constitution of Liberty, plus Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom constitute its New Testament, while Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations comprises its Old.

Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right brilliantly summarizes the structure and strategy of the neoliberal movement that seeks to put economic, political, social, cultural and educational institutions firmly in control of the wealthy, proclaiming it the American Way!

It’s not a radiant future Gitz’s gospel holds for the wretched of the earth. DAVID SIXBEY Flippin