Monday, August 15, 2011

The People vs. The Machine (What is a Neo Lib)

Since the summer of 2005, when I began a camp in front of the vacation “ranch” of George Bush, I have traveled to many countries and all over the U.S. meeting with people who have been in long struggles against neoliberalism. Most of us in the U.S. are familiar with the term “neoconservative,” but “neoliberal” is also a well-understood and often used term in other areas.

Wikipedia has a very good explanation of neoliberalism:

The term “neoliberalism” has also come into wide use in cultural studies to describe an internationally prevailing ideological paradigm that leads to social, cultural, and political practices and policies that use the language of markets, efficiency, consumer choice, transactional thinking and individual autonomy to shift risk from governments and corporations onto individuals and to extend this kind of market logic into the realm of social and affective relationships.

Opponents of neoliberalism would identify several enemy organizations that foster global neoliberalism: the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the U.S. Military—not to mention the collusion of most governments with private corporations in this headlong rush to economic disaster.

What I observe in the U.S. is the financial chickens coming home to roost after decades’ long foreign expansion and wars. I firmly believe that Barack Obama was (s)elected to put a minority face on this expansion to help quell rising protests against the aggressive wars abroad and the war against the poor here at home. Everything he has done during his disastrous first term in office has been done to shore up the economic defenses of the economic elite: expand wars, TARP, health care “reform” bill, bankster bailouts, and the recent debt ceiling debacle.