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One thing that strikes me forcefully right now is that neoliberalism has not just robbed our governments of the *capacity* for effective action in the public good: it's robbed us all of the expectation of *accountability* for actions which go against the public good. 1/ https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/1346368792956456960
When governments are privatized and financialized up the wazoo, their capacity for coordinated, rapid, effective action in the face of public threats like pandemics or climate change is eroded beyond repair. That's extremely clear now. 2/
The only recourse left to our govts is an insane, religiously fanatic belief in economic growth (aka the profitable windfalls of the private shareholders of our formerly public protection systems): that growth will somehow, magically save the day. 3/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/pandenomics-story-life-versus-growth/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/pandenomics-story-life-versus-growth/
But because we, as a population, have also drunk the neoliberal kool-aid, we also accept this view of good & bad outcomes as the result of an impersonal, unaccountable, economic Russian roulette. We accept our governments as pawns of the economy, rather than responsible for it.4/
Which means that we don't insist on holding our elected officials personally, legally and morally accountable for their actions. Our widespread state religion in the economy as our impersonal god, worthy of all sacrifice, whose deadly whims are our human destiny ... 5/
means that we have given over any sense of responsibility, agency and justice. The only 2 groups left which consistently refuse to fall in line with the economy-uber-alles religion are scientists and journalists: we know that we have the capacity to act and change our world. 6/
Scientists & journalists still insist that we can act on covid and climate, and prevent immense numbers of deaths. But that reality of possible action is invisible, impossible, to politicians and public beholden to an economy-first worldview. 7/ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32625-8/fulltext
To rejoin that reality where we have the most basic human agency to act on our world, we have to not just abandon economic supremacy, but attack it and its beneficiaries full frontally. This takes activism. End/
Two relevant pieces I wrote around these topics:
1. Pandenomics - a story of life vs growth
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/pandenomics-story-life-versus-growth/
.2. On Sacrifice https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/sacrifice/
1. Pandenomics - a story of life vs growth
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/pandenomics-story-life-versus-growth/
.2. On Sacrifice https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/sacrifice/
