Neoliberal discourse inverted liberalism’s visionary rhetoric into accommodation to the status quo

Evidence

“I would feel ashamed if I didn’t deal with the way that the world is, not simply dream of the way the world I would like it to be”: capitalist realism in a nutshell. (An unfortunate echo of Bobby Kennedy’s famous slogan: “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” See how, under pressure from capitalist realism, the rhetoric of mainstream liberalism has inverted.) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1547

Categorization

• XREF: Directly exemplifies Fisher’s core ‘capitalist realism’ concept from elsewhere in this book; also echoes the Frankfurt School’s critique of adaptation as the ruling ideology. — connects to: Neoliberals wrote their own inverted history of the twentieth century — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 72; Neoliberalism is a caricature of liberalism reduced to a theory of economic organization — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2121; Neoliberalism inverted classical liberalism by defending monopoly and corporate power — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 175
• SEED: The Kennedy-to-Clegg inversion is a sharp opening anecdote for an essay on how ‘pragmatism’ became the resigned ideology of the center-left.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism inverted classical liberalism by defending monopoly and corporate power #exemplifies (0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 175
• Neoliberalism is a caricature of liberalism reduced to a theory of economic organization #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2121