(7 years ago)

(recent AI synthesis of more recent Monbiot interviews) 

This document synthesizes the core arguments presented by George Monbiot regarding the destructive influence of neoliberalism. Monbiot posits that neoliberalism is not merely an economic policy but a dominant, often invisible, political ideology engineered by capital to undermine its greatest threat: democracy. The core tenets of this doctrine—that humans are primarily selfish, competitive, and best served by market transactions—have been propagated by a well-funded international network of think tanks and lobbyists, making these ideas seem like inevitable common sense.

The consequences of 40 years of neoliberal hegemony are stark: profound political disillusionment, the atomization of society, and spiraling inequality. This widespread disenchantment has created a political vacuum, which is now being filled by far-right demagogues who exploit the failures of the system, creating a perilous situation analogous to the 1930s. Monbiot argues that contemporary Western political systems are "pseudo-democracies," designed for centralized power and easily captured by oligarchs, whom he describes as a psychopathic minority governing a majority of altruists.

To counter this, a new, compelling political narrative is urgently required. The left has failed to produce one since the collapse of Keynesianism, ceding the power of storytelling to its opponents. Monbiot proposes a systemic alternative centered on a "Politics of Belonging," an inclusive, community-based vision designed to counter the brutal, exclusive belonging offered by fascism. This political project must be paired with an economic model of "Private Sufficiency, Public Luxury," where basic needs are met privately, but aspirations for luxury are fulfilled through magnificent, shared public resources. The path forward requires mass mobilization and rebuilding democracy from the local level upwards through participatory models, inspired by successful experiments like the citizen-led budgeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of our time, yet it remains largely unnamed and misunderstood by the public. Its power lies in its invisibility, presenting itself not as a contingent philosophy but as a natural and inevitable state of affairs.

Core Tenets and Purpose

Neoliberalism ... a political tool used by capital to defeat its primary enemy, democracy. Its core philosophy:

• Human Nature as Selfishness and Greed:  humanity's primary characteristics are selfishness and greed, and the main form of social relation is competition. It reframes these traits as virtues that generate wealth.

• The Market as the Solution: It asserts that problems should be solved through buying and selling, not through democratic processes.

• Dismantling Democratic Impediments: The ideology seeks to systematically remove what it views as obstacles to capital, including regulations, taxes, trade unions, and public protest.

• The "Natural Order": It promotes the idea of a "natural order" where "worthy" people (the rich) rise to the top and "unworthy" people (the poor) fall to the bottom. Any interference with this process, such as redistribution or social welfare, is seen as leading inexorably to totalitarianism—a concept Monbiot identifies as a "great slippery slope fallacy."

The formalization of neoliberalism is traced back to the 1944 publication of Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and Ludwig von Mises's Bureaucracy. While initially unpopular in the post-war era of Keynesian social democracy, these ideas found a powerful audience.

• Billionaire Funding: The world's wealthiest individuals and corporations poured billions into the project, creating what is described as a "neoliberal international."

• The "Think Tank" Network: This network, starting with the Mont Pellerin Society in 1947, expanded into hundreds of opaquely funded lobby groups (which Monbiot calls "junk tanks" like the Institute for Economic Affairs) and academic departments. Their role was to refine and market these "outrageous obnoxious things" and make them sound like common sense.

• The Strategy of Invisibility: A key tactic was to drop the term "neoliberalism" in the mid-1950s. By ceasing to name their ideology, proponents could claim it was not an ideology at all, but simply "the way things are." This was famously encapsulated by Margaret Thatcher's phrase, "There is no alternative" (TINA).

Neoliberal policies ... led to state failure by design, creating cascading crises across the social, political, and environmental spheres.

The Erosion of Democracy and the Rise of Demagoguery

Neoliberalism disenfrants politics by rendering the state incapable of solving citizens' problems. This creates a fertile ground for authoritarianism.

• State Failure by Design: By stripping the state of its functions beyond coercion, neoliberalism produces widespread disillusionment. When politics, regardless of the ruling party, fails to improve lives, faith in the democratic process collapses.

• The Vacuum for Demagogues: This disillusionment creates an opening for "killer clowns"—demagogues like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Viktor Orbán—who present themselves as anti-political outsiders. They exploit the crisis created by neoliberalism and, once in power, double down on its most destructive aspects, such as corruption and inequality.

• The Return to Fascism: Monbiot draws a direct parallel between the current moment and the 1920s and 30s, when capital used fascism to crush democracy. He argues, "behind every ranting demagogue there's always a billionaire who who's funding them." The end result is a "horrible sadistic politics" blaming scapegoats (minorities, immigrants...) for systemic problems.

The ideology actively reshapes society and the individual psyche to align with its principles.

• Atomization and the Consumer Identity: The doctrine's thrust is to "atomize and rule." It reframes citizens as consumers, suggesting that political change can be achieved by "buy[ing] a better brand of biscuits." This dissolves collective power.

• Internalization of Blame: Systemic failures are recast as individual failings. The poor are blamed for their poverty, and individuals are urged to internalize blame for issues caused by corporate and structural forces.

• Valorization of "Psychopathic" Values: Society is encouraged to prioritize "extrinsic values" (fame, power, wealth) over "intrinsic values" (empathy, community, belonging). Monbiot starkly concludes: "We are a society of altruists governed by psychopaths."

Environmental Catastrophe

Neoliberalism's principles are fundamentally at odds with environmental protection.

• Deregulation and Destruction: The doctrine's war on regulation has stripped away protections for the natural world, allowing capital to treat the planet as a disposable asset.

• The Flaw of "Green Capitalism": The attempt to solve environmental collapse—a problem caused by capitalism—by extending capitalism into nature through concepts like "biodiversity markets" and "natural capital" is presented as a catastrophic error. It is extending the scale of the problem in the name of solving it.

• The Fraud of Carbon Offsets: Carbon offsetting is described as a system where "the certainty of destruction" (real emissions) is exchanged for "the possibility of salvation" (uncertain, future sequestration). He labels the burgeoning market for soil carbon credits as "total fraud from the very outset."

Monbiot argues ... seizing these moments requires a coherent alternative story and a strategy for change.

Political transformation has always been driven by a simple, powerful narrative.

• The Narrative Structure: "Disorder afflicts the land, caused by powerful and nefarious forces. But the hero... will confront those forces... and restore harmony to the land."

The proposed counter-narrative must be built around a core human value that transcends political divides.

• Belonging as a Universal Value: The craving to belong is a fundamental human urge, effectively weaponized by the far right to attract alienated individuals into an exclusive, brutal form of community.

• An Inclusive Alternative: The left must offer an inclusive, nurturing form of belonging that starts at the local level—in the neighborhood and community. This is the one place where everyone is present and provides a new locus for political organization, replacing the now-dispersed industrial workplace.

True democracy must be participatory, not a system of "presumed consent" where voting once every few years grants a mandate for unchecked rule.

• Participatory and Deliberative Democracy: Citizens must be directly involved in decision-making on an ongoing basis.

• The Porto Alegre Model: Between 1989 and 2004, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre allowed its citizens, many of whom were illiterate, to set the municipal budget. The result was a transformation, with the city rising from the bottom to the top of Brazil's Human Development Index through massive improvements in public health, sanitation, and education. This demonstrates that participatory democracy works better in practice than in theory.

• Devolving Power: Decisions should be made at the most local level possible (the neighborhood) and then delegated upwards, reversing the current top-down imposition of power.

A sustainable and just economic alternative must abandon the impossible promise of universal private luxury.

• The Lie of Universal Wealth: Capitalism's promise that everyone can be a millionaire is a mathematical and ecological impossibility. The system relies on exploitation, and the planet lacks the resources for everyone to live like a billionaire.

• The Principle: The alternative vision is "private sufficiency, public luxury."

    ◦ Private Sufficiency: Everyone is entitled to a decent life, with their basic needs met in their own modest, private domain (e.g., a home).

    ◦ Public Luxury: Aspirations for luxury are pursued collectively through magnificent public assets—parks, swimming pools, libraries, art galleries, and transport systems. This model opens up space and resources for everyone, rather than enclosing them for the few.

The Strategy for Change

• Systemic, Not Incremental: "The plural of incremental change is not systemic change; the plural of incremental change is failure." Small tweaks will not work; the entire system must be challenged.

• Mobilization: Political change requires "mobilization, mobilization, and mobilization." Effective, creative mass campaigns are the only force that can counter the power of oligarchs.

• Hope Through Complex Systems: Understanding that society is a complex system means recognizing that change can happen suddenly. Research suggests a committed 25% of the population can trigger a social tipping point, flipping the system from "impossible" to "inevitable."