Over the past 15 years, the world has seen a financial crisis, the rise of populist politics and a fracturing of the world economic order. Sounds all a bit pre-WWII, right?
Laissez-faire economics is a foundational component of liberalism (well, classical liberalism anyway, which I assume is what he means when using that word).
Yep. They got the pre-WWII concept right, except they didn’t know where to point their finger to blame so they picked liberalism. As usual, it’s the populous to blame and not the ones in positions of power.
I do think liberalism carries the blame for being an opiate of the people more powerful and more closely bonded with capitalism than religion ever was. The focus on individual worth and individual freedom has made people way more amicable to being pitted against each other in a capitalist race to the bottom than even 19th/early 20th century conservatism.
Also local capitalism is awful too. Even just one town can have landlords and serfs, merchants and beggars, guildmasters and abused interns.
I stopped reading at liberalism. It’s global capitalism and always has been. Just call it that.
Laissez-faire economics is a foundational component of liberalism (well, classical liberalism anyway, which I assume is what he means when using that word).
Yep. They got the pre-WWII concept right, except they didn’t know where to point their finger to blame so they picked liberalism. As usual, it’s the populous to blame and not the ones in positions of power.
Seems naive to think you can really separate the two.
I do think liberalism carries the blame for being an opiate of the people more powerful and more closely bonded with capitalism than religion ever was. The focus on individual worth and individual freedom has made people way more amicable to being pitted against each other in a capitalist race to the bottom than even 19th/early 20th century conservatism.
Also local capitalism is awful too. Even just one town can have landlords and serfs, merchants and beggars, guildmasters and abused interns.
Capitalism favors the individual to self isolate inorder to only pursue monetary value.
Yes, and liberalism helps justify that by focusing so heavily on individualist worth and wellbeing. Hence “opiate of the people”.