Neoliberalism sustains itself through double-truth pretenses of spontaneous revolt masking top-down organization

Evidence

Since Hayek’s original point had been that no one “rationally” adopts a kosmos, here was where his construct broke down. Either the dividing line between kosmos and taxis was bright and clear, and the MPS was an example of a taxis, which was thus illegitimate by his own lights, or else kosmos and taxis were hopelessly intertwined, but then there was no dependable way in his system to separate “government” from “market,” and the politics of the NTC would threaten to become unintelligible. The Hayekian wing of the thought collective has never been able to square this circle, so it has to resort to double-truth tactics. For outsiders, neoliberal thinkers are portrayed as plucky individual rebel blooms of rage against the machine, arrayed against all the forces of big government and special interests, and in a few hyperbolic instances, even against the “capitalists.” They are neither sown nor cultivated, but are like unto dandelions after a spring rain, pure expressions of the kosmos. But once initiated into the mysteries of the thought collective, only the organization men rise to the top, and they know it. The Richard Finks, Leonard Reads, and Antony Fishers of the world are the true movers and shakers of the neoliberal movement, not some blogger in a basement. Salarymen are the purest expression of taxis, but must not say so. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 210

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the thought-collective theme running through the whole book and to Mirowski’s broader argument about how the NTC managed top-down coordination while disavowing it. — connects to: Neoliberalism wants a doubled world insulated from redistributive demands. — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 70; Neoliberal capital profits by commodifying resistance itself — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 531; Neoliberalism differs from traditional conservatism in ways that shield it from accountability — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2313 (+17 more)
• SEED: Angle: the ‘dandelions after spring rain’ marketing fiction vs. the salaryman reality — the internal sociology of how a movement claims spontaneity while being run like a firm.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal ‘spontaneous order’ rhetoric masked deliberately orchestrated institutional networks #corroborates (1.00) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2114
• Neoliberalism rests on a double truth separating elite doctrine from mass propaganda #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2146
• Neoliberalism operates through a double truth doctrine separating masses from elites. #corroborates (0.95) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2106
• Neoliberalism’s public rhetoric of open liberalism contradicted its actual closed, hierarchical organization #corroborates (0.93) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 200
• Neoliberalism holds together several unresolved internal contradictions by asserting both sides at once #expands (0.83) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2142
• Neoliberalism operates through systematic contradiction and disavowal of its own practices #corroborates (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 81
• Neoliberalism’s deliberate epistemic inconsistencies enabled its long-term success #expands (0.78)
• Neoliberalism is activated from below by social actors, not merely imposed from above #complicates (0.75) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 530