Understanding neoliberalism is actually not hard. Yes, there are many definitions, and volumes upon volumes have been written. But all you really need to get it are two words: freedom and choice.
Neoliberalism is the belief that you should be free from everything. From the hell that are other people, from unpleasantness, age, your physical nature, the past, the tradition, God. You should be free to choose. The only thing you are not free to choose is to stop choosing. Nothing can be left as-is, unmessed with. Nothing is to be accepted as lying outside of the human freedom to change it. And then change it again.
There’s no off-ramp from this on the left side of the road. You can notice that the cult of freedom and choice has gone too far, that people are lonely, that many are miserable and drugged out, that life in general is becoming more uncomfortable. You can notice it but there’s nothing you can do because the moment you say, “no, that’s not working, let’s stop and go back to how it was”, you become the worst of all possible things, a right-winger.
Tony Tulathimutte is an extraordinary talent but he’s looking for an off-ramp on the left and not finding it because it’s not there. I have not yet found a better, more talented and poignant depiction of how neoliberalism devastates people’s lives than his novel Rejection. But he’s terrified of the solution. It’s right there, even on the purely narrative level the novel could have been closed out so much stronger. Instead, it dissolves into word games and the usual over-investment into the inflamed, belabored self.
A negative finding is as important as a positive one. Liberalism has no solution for the ills it created. No amount of talent can locate what is not there. The off-ramp is located on the right.
Clarissa's Blog 
This is somewhat off-topic, but since this is a book post, I recall that a week or so ago you requested suggestions for a new mystery series to read.
This isn’t exactly new, but a few years ago I discovered the work of Ross MacDonald. He wrote in the mid 20th century and is widely regarded as the inheritor of the legacy of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett as the premier author of the hard boiled detective novel. He wrote 18 books with the same P.I. protagonist and by now I’ve read almost all of them. They’re pretty short, usually less than 250 pages and make for quick reads. Family secrets and the sins of the parents coming back to haunt the children are favorite themes.
The first was published in 1949 and the last in 1976. Each book takes place during the time it was written, so by paying attention to the incidental background details you get an interesting look at the transition from 1950s America to 1970s America as it appeared to someone who was there while it was happening as opposed to how it’s been remembered in history and popular culture.
I’ve been picking them up in used bookstores, but they are all still in print and available from Amazon. At least some are available as audio books, although I don’t know if they all are.
The Zebra-Striped Hearse, The Goodbye Look, The Galton Case, The Drowning Pool, or The Chill are all good places to start.
(commenter formerly Known as AcademicLurker)
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“…the transition from 1950s America to 1970s America as it appeared to someone who was there while it was happening as opposed to how it’s been remembered in history and popular culture.”
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I’m not sure about the second part, though. The worst terrorists of the 1970s have cushy professorial jobs of the kind from which I’m barred. They are rich and venerated. What exactly did they find out?
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Those particular terrorists found out that the general population had no interest in an armed revolution. They remained Marxists, but turned from physical violence to misleading gullible youth, sadly, a far more effective and profitable method.
We all learn with age. Look at what you have learned: “If you find the one with the saucer-sized badge of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, I do take that one back. And the Michael Brown posts. I was duped beyond what words can describe. I’ll never stop feeling embarrassed over that.” All people have similar embarassing stories; we once faithfully carried CCF/NDP cards, but eventually became amongst the first Reformers. We are all still learning ;-D
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That’s one the hardest life lessons to swallow is that often there are no consequences whatsoever for bad actions. In fact, the more egregious the transgression, the more likely the offender is to get away with it.
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We all answer to God in the end.
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I just read the sample pages of Rejection and I can totally see why you like it. It’s instantly gripping, with an almost manic quality to the prose. The satire is merciless, downright menacing. I just requested it from the library.
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And it gets so much better after the first story. A hardcore talented guy.
I hope you enjoy!
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