Neoliberal prescriptions need not work to be promoted, only to advance the project

Evidence

Like most neoliberal prescriptions, the most important fact concerning this tortured marriage of science and corporate commodification is that it often doesn’t work to ameliorate its stated target problem, although it does permit further amplification of the larger neoliberal political project. Permit me to relate one recent incident that illustrates this fact. For some inexplicable reason, the British Royal Society has been one of the biggest “insider” boosters of geoengineering. Partly for that reason, one of the earliest consortia of scientists seeking to mount a pilot program for injecting particles into the stratosphere has been the British Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering project, or SPICE, headquartered at Bristol and Cambridge universities. SPICE announced in 2011 that it would use a weather balloon to lift a one-kilometer-high hose to spray an aerosol, as proof of concept. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 933

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the coral-biodiversity ‘work doesn’t matter’ principle from earlier passages about why ideas succeed — mechanisms matter more than outcomes. — connects to: Neoliberals do not practice the laissez-faire they preach to the public.; Individual geoengineering project failures still serve the broader neoliberal project. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 935