Freire attacked neoliberalism for treating alternatives to its creed as unthinkable

Evidence

Freire’s later work emphasizes the importance of becoming less certain than we sometimes tend to be. Freire does not reject the idea of certainty altogether; he qualifies it. He is not an advocate for either complete certainty or total uncertainty. Being “less” certain implies a comparison with something else, and for Freire, a key contrast in his later years was between his own position and the views adopted by neoliberals. By the 1990s, neoliberalism had become political orthodoxy, and those who adhered to its creed acted as if any other direction for economic and social reform was unthinkable. Freire regarded neoliberalism as fatalistic and dehumanizing, too closed to alternatives, too dismissive of other ideas (Freire, 1996, 1998a, 2004). — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 897

Categorization

• XREF: Builds on ch15’s claim that ‘Contemporary culture is defined by exaggerated certainties’ — Freire’s later certainty-critique targeted specifically the fatalistic closure of neoliberal doctrine. — connects to: Neoliberal school reforms operate as Freirean banking education — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 943; Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No…, 8; His revolutionary class critique is stripped from watered-down versions of Freire — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1409

Broader Connections

• Capitalist realism makes alternatives to capitalism unthinkable #corroborates (0.92) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 8