Liberation For the 99%
individual liberty promotes the wellbeing of human society, it will always
ultimately promote the survival of the state, just like totalitarian fascism. Hayek
was heavily influenced by John Locke’s claim that the majority should be able to
grant the government the power to suspend civil liberties in the face of crisis, such
as the military draft, for example. 27 His account becomes particularly problematic
when the majority is indoctrinated with nationalist values, as occurred in Fascist
Italy.
Furthermore, neoliberalism has been criticized by contemporary Marxists,
such as Dave Harvey, who sees neoliberalism as an economic model, or mode of
production, and argues that its main objective is to reinforce the modern-day
bourgeoisie’s class dominance. Harvey also joins other Marxists in his assessment of
neoliberalism by emphasizing that its biggest problem is that it conflates freedom
and liberty with establishing a limited state, which has only continued to
perpetuate existing inequalities. 28 I argue that neoliberalism is itself an expression
of the exploitative class relations in American society and exists to better reinforce
the capitalist agenda by commodifying social movements. As originally proposed by
Siddhant Issar, racial capitalism und er neoliberalism urges individuals to be ‘anti -
racist’ by buying from black -owned businesses, which will not address the wealthy
inequality between whites and Black people in America. 29 The bourgeoisie has been
building generational wealth since the American Revolution, and the neoliberal
ideals that rule American democracy are inherently racist, sexist, and classist
because they attempt to implement reforms from within the system, even though
those controlling the state apparatus are the ones controlling the system; making
inequality inescapable.
27 John Locke, Two Treatises of Government , ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 50. 28 David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 75. 29 Cara Nguyen, “The Relationship between White Supremacy and Capitalism: A Socioeconomic Study on Embeddedness in the Market and Society,” SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal : Vol. 4, Article 6, https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/suurj/vol4/iss1/6.
Volume VI (2023)
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