Challenging Consumer Capitalism and Assumptions of Social Structures

by Robert Wilkinson

Via the ever-great TruthOut, an amazing (if somewhat dense) article assessing what must be done if we are to build a more enlightened society and educated population out of the wreckage of our current failed economic and social "free market" experiment. Written at a PhD level of comprehensibility, it may take a while to chew on some of its pithier assertions, but it does open the door to profound thought and ways to move out of the economic and social assumptions creating the global mess we're in, regardless of what continent we live on.

As one commenter put it in two sentences:

Susan and Henry Giroux here provide a brilliant and vital “theoretical” opening for the rest of us to engage further the kind of “hard thinking” necessary to begin to overcome the multiple burdens, challenges and crises we face. The kinds, and levels, of social, economic, political, cultural and pedagogical transformations necessary, domestically AND globally, for creating the forms of substantive and sustainable democracy stressed in this article will not be easily achieved, but will require an enormous and ongoing amount of rational thought, critical reflection, strength of will, intellectual rigor, and committed action grounded both in a careful understanding of current dilemmas and how we have arrived at this point, and hopeful possibilities rooted in critical visions of what we want and what it will take to get there.

Here's your very profound analytical brain stretch for the day (and year!), Beyond Bailouts: On the Politics of Education After Neoliberalism by world renowned educators and authors Henry A. Giroux and Susan Searls Giroux. I am glad to find that critical thinking is not a lost art. At the very least this article will improve our vocabularies!

© Copyright 2009 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[dcu]

Robert: Thank you for a very thought provoking article. Knowing what a fan of Groucho the Libra that you are, check out Bill Moyers' version of Duck Soup:

Bill Moyers/Michael Winship | Making 'Duck Soup' Out of 2009

[Robert]

Hi dcu - I read it, and it's a truly great article. It would seem that life does indeed mimic art, if you wait long enough!

[Layli]

The authors make a good point: That neoliberalism is more than an economic policy, it's a mindset. To get rid of it, we have to get rid of the mindset it produces -- which is a twist on getting rid of the mindset that produced it. I find it fascinating to correlate the economic and philosophical phenomena in question with astrological phenomena. For instance, I see this move of Pluto into Capricorn as very signal. The thirty years of neoliberal exuberance referred to in the article basically correspond with Pluto's transit through Scorpio and Sagittarius, respectively. Scorpio opened the door for the darkness of neoliberalism to take hold through a process of seduction and addiction (especially through innovations in advertising and financial vehicles), while Sagittarius allowed a wild optimism and a certain charismatic type of logical forcefulness to push neoliberalism's fictive benefits to a certain untenable maximum (e.g., Enron & friends; the mortgage crisis). Recipe for a crash -- on economic *and* soul planes. So, in marches Capricorn, Saturn's rod and staff, to rectify everything and return the economy to a place of sense and sensibility, forcing the collective soul to pay penance in the process, at the same time as it is being cleansed for bigger and better things (which will appear when the Aquarius transit shows up). I am being succinct here, because in my view this could be taken all the way back to Pluto's transit of Cancer in 1914-1939, when von Hayek birthed the theory behind neoliberalism and Keynes was birthing its stiffest competition in the form of his big government / government intervention theory. This was also the period when the Great Depression took place -- how interesting that Pluto's near half-return presents us with a second one, as these two signs correspond to mother and father energy respectively! Keynes ruled throughout Pluto in Leo, Virgo, and Libra, while von Hayek got his day just as Pluto was entering Scorpio, getting in two signs to his rival's three -- but two terribly pernicious and vicious ones in terms of the havoc they wreaked (although who can question it if it sets the stage and necessary preconditions for the process of ascension?). Granted, this is a gross oversimplification, but I am truly fascinated by this theme. I think there is much to be learned -- by those who are willing -- by looking at the macro-astrological correlates to macro-economic trends, as they impact all our lives, pocketbooks, and psyches so heavily. More than this, as Giroux and Giroux point out, other structures of society -- particularly education, the media, and all social structures with the tendency to overdetermine consciousness -- are also impacted. I feel so strongly that our ability to navigate these trends would be enhanced by a return to respect for the astrological sciences, hence my intent to continually deepen my astrological knowledge that I may infuse it into the overly materialistic and underly metaphysical public discourse.

[Robert]

Hi Layli - My only concern (and that of one of the commenters over at the article) is that I believe the term "neoliberalism" is extraordinarily misleading of what we confront. I would use something like "neoconservative consumerism" or some such thing. "Spend to sacrifice" and "the way to peace is through war" are but two examples of being sold something that sounds conservative, but is actually the same old same old. Unfortunately, most people are hypnotized by the idea of material abundance or lack, and so point the mind to outer things, which by nature are impermanent and lead the mind to judging good v bad, more v less, you v me, all of which are illusions, but powerful ones nonetheless.

What you say about the Pluto sign occupations since Scorpio is interesting, and certainly correlates. Of course, consumerism existed well before our relatively small life spans. And you are definitely on to something by dating this back to Pluto in Cancer, which showed a generation who feared the lack of basic necessities and had to find ways to address global recession and poverty. That period brought us the widespread use of cars and trucks, enabling goods to be transported in ways they couldn't before. The excesses of the 20s brought the American crash of the 30s, just as the excesses of the Reagan, Bush1, Clinton, and Bush2 years has brought our world to the current collapse of finances, goods, and services we're now trying to fix. I do wish us all good luck, since I believe Humpty Dumpty has been broken and no amount of king's horses and men will put it back together again, due to just too much waste, greed, and destruction.

Another factor is that all of this is coming to surface with Saturn opposition Uranus, with Saturn in the same sign as the Uranus-Pluto conjunction also opposed by Saturn 40+ years ago. The last time Saturn was in Virgo we had "stagflation," another major worry of modern Wall Street. Some things just don't seem to change of their own, so it's definitely time for all to cooperate in creating major change in how we live on this Earth with each other. That's what the new era is all about. Something about the love we take is equal to the love we make comes to mind. And we definitely need a more enlightened public dialog!!