Prominent intellectuals rejected Lippmann’s new ‘neoliberalism’ as illiberal and intolerant

Evidence

The book, John Dewey wrote in Common Sense, gives “encouragement and practical support to reactionaries,” in part by identifying “every form of socialism and collectivism with state or governmental socialism.” Lewis Mumford complained of Lippmann’s “strange collectivist heresy hunt,” in which he posited the only social options as a free economy and a militarized collectivism. And Charles Merriam expressed his consternation about “an attempt to state a theory and formulate a practice of neoliberalism” that demonstrated “illiberalism and intolerance toward those who differ from the new credo.” Lippmann’s refusal to accept the legitimacy of gradations of planning lent a potent sense of urgency to his rhetoric, which in turn troubled those who did not share his manifest belief in the contemporary dangers of nuance. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 157

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to reader’s Mont Pèlerin milieu history — Merriam and others critiquing nascent ‘neoliberalism’ as reactionary illiberalism foreshadows later scholarly verdicts; connects to reader’s broader MPS reading. — connects to: A contemporary critic charged neoliberals with insulating themselves from serious outside intellectual challenge — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 578; Right-wing economists defended nineteenth-century laissez-faire against Lippmann’s attack — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 158
• SEED: Angle: how the earliest critics of ‘neoliberalism’ in the 1930s already diagnosed it as intolerance dressed as doctrine — the intra-liberal fight over the term predates postwar debates.

Broader Connections

• A contemporary critic charged neoliberals with insulating themselves from serious outside intellectual challenge #exemplifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 578
• Right-wing economists defended nineteenth-century laissez-faire against Lippmann’s attack #contradicts (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 158