LIBERALISM IS NOT working. Something deep within the mechanism has cracked. All our wonk managers, our expert stewards of the world, have lost their way. They wander desert highways in a daze, wondering why the brakes locked up, why the steering wheel came off, how the engine caught on fire. Their charts lie abandoned by the roadside. It was all going so well just a moment ago. History was over. The technocratic order was globalizing the world; people were becoming accustomed to the permanent triumph of a slightly kinder exploitation. What happened? All they can recall is a loud thump in the undercarriage, an abrupt loss of control. Was it Brexit? Trump? Suddenly the tires were bursting and smoke was pouring into the vehicle, then a flash. The next thing they could remember, our liberals were standing beside a smoldering ruin, blinking in the hot sun, their power stolen, their world collapsing, their predictions all proven wrong.
Of course not ever being among the faithful liberals except as I faltered listening to Obama's first acceptance speech I find it amusing to to imaging the wonks, unwitting or not "blinking" in the sun surveying the wreckage of all their ideas. Then as one commenter says "I started skimming when it became clear the author was more interested in impressing me with wordplay than building to something meaningful". Nonetheless it's a guilty pleasure to read unless of course you are among those still raw and sensitive about crumbling Neoliberal ideas being trampled by an idiot with orange hair. Don't take if personally -- You'll get over it sooner than you think.
Read whole article here The Blathering Superego at the End of History - Los Angeles Review of Books:
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