Polanyi saw liberalism as incubating its own destruction at peak power

Evidence

Counter-movements historically have emerged from a diverse set of constituencies that included “workers, peasants, industrialists and landowning elites,” who mobilized to demand national restrictions on markets (Goodwin 2018, 1271). But the kind of counter-movement that Polanyi himself favored was international. Anticipating a new global financial regime, he advocated a framework that would foster market regulation and social provision by democratic welfare states. Polanyi was interested in the longue durée of the tensions built within capitalist dynamics rather than in how temporary diversions may become absorbed by it (Peck 2013). His work thus strove to be sensitive to the complex and permanent struggles between traditional and modern forms of capitalism, avoiding a short-sighted view of markets as the (sole) cause of political individuation. One of the most noteworthy implications of the double-movement theory, then, is its view of liberalism as an incubator of its own destruction even when (or precisely when) it appears to be omnipotent. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 261

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘liberalism as incubator of its own destruction’ idea resonates with the Frankfurt School discussions of how irrationalism serves economic power — a recurring contrarian debt in the reader’s library. — connects to: The liberal individual was destroyed by capital, not by dictators — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 659; Polanyi’s double movement explains market booms as triggering protective nationalist backlash — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 259; Neoliberals feared violent colonial repression would destroy Western liberalism itself. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 399 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: The liberal individual was destroyed by capital, not by dictators — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 659; Polanyi’s double movement explains market booms as triggering protective nationalist backlash — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 259; Neoliberals feared violent colonial repression would destroy Western liberalism itself. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 399 (+1 more)