Neoliberalism holds individual inviolability alongside managed manipulation of persons

Evidence

22. It is important to highlight the seeming contradiction of treating the individual personality as inviolate, and yet eminently subject to manipulation through all sorts of technologies of “governmentality” and vigilant governance. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 187

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Captures the core neoliberal paradox — freedom as inviolate yet fabricated through governance technologies — a dense, paradigm-shaping point about Foucauldian governmentality scholarship.
• XREF: Strongly evokes Foucault’s governmentality lectures and later work on the production of neoliberal subjectivity. — connects to: Neoliberal persuasion works by convincing people they cannot be manipulated — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 392; Neoliberals now frame behavioral nudge policy as a new road to serfdom — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 313; Neoliberalism framed itself as a defence of individual freedom against all collectivist systems. (+4 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 187

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination #expands (0.92) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 153
• Neoliberals conditioned self-government on accepting market discipline #complicates (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 297