Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy

Evidence

Neoliberals extol freedom as trumping all other virtues; but the definition of freedom is recoded and heavily edited within their framework. Some members of the neoliberal thought collective (e.g., Friedman) refuse to define it altogether, while others (Hayek) forge links to thesis 2. by motivating it as an epistemic virtue (Hayek 1960, 81). In practice, Freedom is not the realization of any political, human, or cultural telos, but rather is the positing of autonomous self-governed individuals, all coming naturally equipped with a neoclassical version of rationality and motives of ineffable self-interest, striving to improve their lot in life by engaging in market exchange. Education is consequently a consumer good, not a life-transforming experience. Foucault is often strongest on the role of these “technologies of the self,” which involve an elaborate revision in cultural concepts of human freedom and morality. This argument broke out within the MPS in the 1970s, with Irving Kristol accusing Friedman and Hayek of depending on a version of self-realization as the great empty void at the center of their economic doctrines. Freedom can only be “negative” for neoliberals (in the sense of Isaiah Berlin) for one very important reason. Freedom cannot be extended from the use of knowledge in society to the use of knowledge about society, because self-examination concerning why one passively accepts local and incomplete knowledge leads to contemplation of how market signals create some forms of knowledge and squelch others. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2130

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how neoliberals define freedom negatively — as autonomous self-interested exchange — and why negative (Berlin) liberty is structurally required to keep markets the supreme knowledge processor.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s ‘technologies of the self’ and Isaiah Berlin’s negative/positive liberty distinction; also relevant to Mirowski’s other work on the neoliberal ‘thought collective’. — connects to: Leading neoliberals defended restricting political freedom to preserve economic freedom — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 500; Neoliberalism has no answer for subjects who use liberty against it — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1873; Neoliberal theorists openly argued liberty must be limited to be possessed — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 119 (+31 more)

Broader Connections

• Market ideology functions to repress freedom rather than secure it #corroborates (0.92) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 600
• Capitalism structurally requires negative liberty and rejects positive liberty #qualifies (0.75) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 299