Neoliberalism supplied sheltering ideologies that surveillance capitalism exploited

Evidence

Economic historian Philip Mirowski summarizes the “metatheses” that since the 1980s helped to constitute neoliberalism as a loose “paradigm,” despite its amorphous, multifaceted, and sometimes contradictory theories and practices. Among these, several became essential shelter for the surveillance capitalists’ bold actions, secret operations, and rhetorical misdirection: (1) democracy was to be constrained in favor of actively reconstructing the state as the agent of a stable market society; (2) the entrepreneur and the corporation were conflated, enshrining “corporate personhood,” rather than the rights of citizens, as the focus of legal protections; (3) freedom was defined negatively, as “freedom from” interference in the natural laws of competition, and all control was understood as coercive, except for market control; and (4) inequality of wealth and rights was accepted and even celebrated as a necessary feature of a successful market system and a force for progress. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1923

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s earlier work on neoliberal paradigms and the state-market relationship; also evokes Philip Mirowski’s other work on markets as information processors. — connects to: Neoliberal anti-regulation ideology and the war on terror jointly sheltered surveillance capitalism from scrutiny — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1079; Surveillance capitalists claim market freedom while dismantling the ignorance it was premised on — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1578; Surveillance capitalism reproduces the very collectivism its neoliberal founders opposed. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1604 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the four core metatheses of neoliberalism as a paradigm, clarifying the ideological substrate surveillance capitalism drew on.

Broader Connections

• Surveillance capitalism thrives where individualized consumption meets a hostile neoliberal paradigm #qualifies (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 96
• Surveillance capitalism constitutes a privatized market-based collectivism #corroborates (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1603