Neoliberalism operates through systematic contradiction and disavowal of its own practices

Evidence

This dappled, striated, and flickering complexion is also the face of an order replete with contradiction and disavowal, structuring markets it claims to liberate from structure, intensely governing subjects it claims to free from government, strengthening and retasking states it claims to abjure. In the economic realm, neoliberalism aims simultaneously at deregulation and control. It carries purpose and has its own futurology (and futures markets), while eschewing planning. It seeks to privatize every public enterprise, yet valorizes public-private partnerships that imbue the market with ethical potential and social responsibility and the public realm with market metrics. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 81

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox structure — claiming freedom while intensely governing, liberating markets while structuring them — is the subtle core of Brown’s argument that goes beyond a simple ‘neoliberalism is bad’ critique.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberal authors produce obfuscating scholarship that disguises the movement’s own practices — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1821; Neoliberalism’s opponents, not its own theory, collapsed after the crisis — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 25; Neoliberals disagree sharply among themselves about what a market is — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 151 (+34 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism holds together several unresolved internal contradictions by asserting both sides at once #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2142
• Neoliberalism operates from a unified playbook despite surface variation #contradicts (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 917