Neutral intellectual framing and activist positioning were in tension within the early neoliberal movement

Evidence

The source of this discomfort, in Harper’s view, was the Society’s insistence on appearing to be a space of neutral intellectual inquiry, an attitude that the politicized FEE roundly rejected: “We have acquired the label of intolerance to views differing from our own … and the price we must pay for it is a degree of ‘cold shoulder,’ a strong feeling of suspicion whenever we appear to aggress.” — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1468

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the tension between Hayek’s scholar identity and the businessman-activist donors; reflects a recurring theme in my Mont Pelerin reading about the movement’s self-presentation as apolitical. — connects to: Failing to settle on a shared label fractured the nascent neoliberal movement. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 186; The paleoliberal and neoliberal labels once marked opposing camps within the liberal revival — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 350; Early neoliberals split over whether freedom served dignity or stood alone — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 354 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism is internally diverse and marked by real internal conflict #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 45