Neoliberalism framed itself as a defence of individual freedom against all collectivist systems.
Evidence
Foucault is clearly intrigued by the “freedom” that liberalism and neoliberalism promise. He knows we can be governed through such freedom, but refuses the Marxist point that what is being named as freedom elides and even discursively inverts crucial powers of domination. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 153 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
This is the true terminus of the neoliberal self: to supplant your own mother and father; to shrug off the surly bond ratings of earth; to transform yourself at the drop of a hat or the swallow of a pill; to be beholden to no other body but only to the incorporeal market. It doesn’t matter if the procedure actually lies within the bounds of contemporary scientific possibility, because it is the apocalypse and the Rapture of the neoliberal scriptures. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 430 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Neoliberalism claimed openness to all viewpoints while privately enforcing ideological conformity — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200; Neoliberalism denies any harmable self, dissolving all positive freedom — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 308; Neoliberalism weaponizes its own rebellious aesthetic to absorb anti-system dissent. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 257 (+12 more)
Related
- Neoliberals redefine freedom as something to be limited and detached from democracy (similarity 0.87)
- Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination (similarity 0.86)
- Within neoliberalism, one’s theory of markets determines one’s definition of freedom (similarity 0.86)
- Neoliberalism continuously polices individualism to prevent collectivity (similarity 0.86)
- Neoliberalism denies any harmable self, dissolving all positive freedom (similarity 0.86)
- Neoliberal ‘freedom’ is internally redefined to mean market autonomy, not political liberty (similarity 0.86)
- Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy (similarity 0.85)
- Neoliberalism’s core value is protecting the whole world economy, not individual freedom (similarity 0.85)
- Neoliberalism claims to liberate while actually eroding political sovereignty (similarity 0.84)
- Neoliberalism holds individual inviolability alongside managed manipulation of persons (similarity 0.84)
- Neoliberalism’s social theory is fundamentally epistemological, recoding freedom as instrumental to independent orders (similarity 0.84)
- Neoliberal freedom amounts to submission to market sovereignty enforced by price fluctuations (similarity 0.84)
- Neoliberals restrict freedom to negative freedom to shield market epistemology from scrutiny (similarity 0.84)
- Neoliberal power works by interiorizing relations that subjects read as freedom (similarity 0.84)
- Neoliberalism subordinates the state to capital rather than freeing markets (similarity 0.83)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberals framed welfare states as existential threats to individual rights and civilisation
#exemplifies(0.90) - Neoliberalism’s ultimate ideal self is the autonomous self-made individual
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 430 - Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination
#complicates(0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 153 - Neoliberal freedom is recoded as negative liberty to protect market supremacy
#qualifies(0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2130 - Neoliberals restrict freedom to negative freedom to shield market epistemology from scrutiny
#expands(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 169 - Neoliberalism abolishes classes, the individual, and Lockean property in one move
#contradicts(0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 164 - Neoliberalism’s social theory is fundamentally epistemological, recoding freedom as instrumental to independent orders
#qualifies(0.75) - Neoliberalism holds individual inviolability alongside managed manipulation of persons
#complicates(0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 187 - Neoliberalism elevates capital and information flows over all other freedoms.
#contradicts(0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1743 - Surveillance capitalism reproduces the very collectivism its neoliberal founders opposed.
#complicates(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1604 - Freedom is a self-determined space beyond any totality, defended against power’s ownership.
#corroborates(0.70) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 475