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the old marxist notion of ideology presupposed that there was a group of folk who stood outside it and pulled the strings. in the case of folk like greenspan, i think that the cadre who were pulling the strings operated inside the ideological shell, and worse than that in a context that was thoroughly dominated by that ideology such that dissonant information was sheared off. so it was possible to look at, say, statistical information about the social consequences of neoliberal-inspired action and not see them. of course, these same folk knew that the statistical image was constructed around the same kind of arguments that they themselves argued through--but the fit, it seems, was compelling.
at the same time, it is obvious that the logical conclusion of these arguments was: take everything you can get and get out because over the longer run we have no idea what is going to happen. maybe jesus will come. who knows? so get what you can and get out.
this follows from the claim that the bottom line motivation behind neoliberalism was risk reduction in response to radically heightened uncertainty. at the same time, the way neoliberalism was naturalized indicates that folk understood that this uncertainty could be managed. but it all operated inside an amazingly short-term way of thinking. a nihilistic short-term thinking.
i think greenspan et al knew what they were doing, and are directly responsible for the wreckage of the system that they enabled. but i don't think they operated from a remove--they, like alot of the assholes who raped the system for everything they could and got out, simply either took advantage of the risk-reduction dimension to the ideology, figuring more or less "après moi le deluge" or thought that the consequences of this idiot, dysfunctional ideology could be managed politically in a way that would mean that, functionally, they would not exist.
they were almost right about the latter--it is amazing the extent to which there is no real mass action across this. people are absent. they are watching tv. on the former, i think they are being hoisted by their own petard. it's hard not to laugh.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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