Orthodox economics’ internal disputes serve as deliberate diversions protecting the neoliberal project

Evidence

It is therefore my contention that there is method to the madness, goal orientation behind the gallimaufry laid out in this chapter. I would suggest that much of the brouhaha documented above ends up being subservient to the first movement of the agnotological playbook. Whatever the individual motivations, the plangent exculpations of the orthodox economists serve mostly to ratchet up the levels of doubt and skepticism in the public mind, and lure unsuspecting bloggers into ineffectual disputes that lead nowhere fast. The folderol over the DSGE model or rationality or the EMH just prepares the ground for the implantation of one or more clear and simple neoliberal alternatives, covered in the remainder of this chapter. … The only thing that would give them pause is the genesis of a serious antineoliberal doctrine that began to draw the allegiance of significant numbers of economists, posing a real challenge to the neoliberal ascendancy. So far, nothing of the sort has happened. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 834

Categorization

• XREF: Links to Mirowski’s ‘agnotology’ concept and its application across the chapter; also connects to the broader thought-collective thesis about how orthodox economics functions as noise-generator for NTC. — connects to: Neoliberalism is internally diverse and marked by real internal conflict — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 45; Neoliberalism operates through systematic contradiction and disavowal of its own practices — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 81
• DEFINE: Explains how mechanical ‘revision’ of orthodox economics acts as the first movement of an agnotological strategy — deliberate sowing of doubt.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism is internally diverse and marked by real internal conflict #contradicts (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 45
• Neoliberalism operates through systematic contradiction and disavowal of its own practices #expands (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 81