Neoliberalism’s persistence is better explained as adaptation than as zombie-like undead survival

Evidence

The standard response to what Colin Crouch called the “strange non-death of neoliberalism” has been a turn to the metaphor of the zombie. Yet invoking the occult in the interest of reasoned analysis strikes us as self-defeating. Jamie Peck has suggested that neoliberalism lost “another of its nine lives” after the global financial crisis in 2008.3 We adopt his metaphor in seeing neoliberalism as less like a zombie and more like a cat. Though cats are granted nine lives, this is not meant literally. There is no sorcery in their survival, simply a preternatural ability. As a body of thought and set of practices, neoliberalism too has proven agile and acrobatic, prone to escaping alive from even the most treacherous predicaments. As Peck writes, it has shown a consistent feline capacity to “fail-and-flail-forward.” — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 13

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the book’s governing metaphor—cat rather than zombie—that reframes how its survival should be analyzed.
• XREF: Engages Colin Crouch’s ‘strange non-death of neoliberalism’ and Jamie Peck’s nine-lives image, useful anchors for the broader reading. — connects to: Neoliberalism persists as undead zombie beyond its discrediting — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2238; Neoliberalism endures as a zombie ideology that resisters cannot easily kill — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1711; Neo-neoliberalism achieves ubiquity through replication rather than movement — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1877 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism persists as undead zombie beyond its discrediting #contradicts (1.00) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2238
• Neoliberalism endures as a zombie ideology that resisters cannot easily kill #contradicts (0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1711
• Neoliberal continuity survived via pragmatic adjustment, not doctrinal purity #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1615
• Neo-neoliberalism achieves ubiquity through replication rather than movement #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1877
• Neoliberalism’s resilience rests on deliberate epistemic inconsistency across discourse levels. #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 93
• Neoliberalism’s deliberate epistemic inconsistencies enabled its long-term success #corroborates (0.85)
• Neoliberalism is a self-consciously evolving thought collective, not a fixed catechism #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 141
• Neo-neoliberalism’s universalizing reach depends on deliberate destruction and neglect #qualifies (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1878