On liberalism
May. 13th, 2010 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sebastienneIt was a real bummer the other month to re-watch Ghost World and discover that Enid Coleslaw is not, in fact, an aspirational figure. Which is a shame, because I appear to have accidentally become her.
Why has the Grauniad gone all right-wing? Libertarianism is not liberalism. Letting your mate's corporation employ people below minimum wage and calling it "welfare-to-work" is definitely not liberalism. There are lots of good things which have come out of this coalition which would not have happened otherwise - but calling it liberalism makes me feel icky. Please stop. The word you are looking for is "neoliberalism" which, despite the name, has very little in common with liberalism. Neoliberalism is the charmingly implausible belief that the free market pixies will magically defeat social inequality.
I expect that smug people will comment on this post, telling me that I have misunderstood the term "liberal", and pointing out its free market aspects. But I understand liberalism to be, above all things, about maximising freedom, equality, and human dignity for everyone. At the moment, we live in a fucked-up world, which means that state intervention is required - in equalities legislation, in welfare, maybe even in quotas - to promote said freedom, equality, and dignity. Because our markets are full of people who grew up in this fucked-up world, and are awash with its attitudes, even the most well-meaning can still perpetuate damaging inequalities. I know I can. Maybe your libertarian utopia will work, when everyone living in it is completely free from pre-conceived ideas. I look forward to the libertarian utopia inhabited only by the Englightened. But, for now, stay vigilant. Do not be conned by nice-sounding talk of "freedom" and "liberalism" which is the cousin of "but you're all free to marry someone with the opposite birth-certificate-sex, what's the problem?"
And if you still don't understand what the problem is, here, ask yourself - do the pre-conceived ideas held by the majority of people who make up the markets benefit people like you? Are you white, male, educated, able-bodied, cisgendered, heterosexual, monogamous, have a white-sounding name? You have done nothing wrong by having some or all of these attributes - I have the majority of them! - but please be aware that you benefit because of them, that the "free market" will always fall out in your favour because of the juices of social prejudice we've all been stewing in. This is not liberalism.
(This post brought to you by a cracking Lashings opening night and 5 hours' sleep...)
Why has the Grauniad gone all right-wing? Libertarianism is not liberalism. Letting your mate's corporation employ people below minimum wage and calling it "welfare-to-work" is definitely not liberalism. There are lots of good things which have come out of this coalition which would not have happened otherwise - but calling it liberalism makes me feel icky. Please stop. The word you are looking for is "neoliberalism" which, despite the name, has very little in common with liberalism. Neoliberalism is the charmingly implausible belief that the free market pixies will magically defeat social inequality.
I expect that smug people will comment on this post, telling me that I have misunderstood the term "liberal", and pointing out its free market aspects. But I understand liberalism to be, above all things, about maximising freedom, equality, and human dignity for everyone. At the moment, we live in a fucked-up world, which means that state intervention is required - in equalities legislation, in welfare, maybe even in quotas - to promote said freedom, equality, and dignity. Because our markets are full of people who grew up in this fucked-up world, and are awash with its attitudes, even the most well-meaning can still perpetuate damaging inequalities. I know I can. Maybe your libertarian utopia will work, when everyone living in it is completely free from pre-conceived ideas. I look forward to the libertarian utopia inhabited only by the Englightened. But, for now, stay vigilant. Do not be conned by nice-sounding talk of "freedom" and "liberalism" which is the cousin of "but you're all free to marry someone with the opposite birth-certificate-sex, what's the problem?"
And if you still don't understand what the problem is, here, ask yourself - do the pre-conceived ideas held by the majority of people who make up the markets benefit people like you? Are you white, male, educated, able-bodied, cisgendered, heterosexual, monogamous, have a white-sounding name? You have done nothing wrong by having some or all of these attributes - I have the majority of them! - but please be aware that you benefit because of them, that the "free market" will always fall out in your favour because of the juices of social prejudice we've all been stewing in. This is not liberalism.
(This post brought to you by a cracking Lashings opening night and 5 hours' sleep...)
