Neoliberalism, the conventional wisdom that has driven the international consensus about government is under attack. Jim Harding writes:
The libertarian view that the individual must relentlessly fight against interference from the government has mushroomed since the 1970s. That government intrusion in our lives must be fervently resisted gained credence from still popular writers such as U.S. Russian refugee, Ayn Rand. By 2009, the combined annual sales of her four novels exceeded one million. Her famous book, Atlas Shrugged, written in 1957 during the Cold War, topped more than 7 million sales after the 2009 financial crash.
The contemporary libertarian view, especially in the U.S., is greatly rooted in opposition to communism. It encouraged the reframing of freedom from authoritarian governments to mean freedom from government authority. The constitutional pursuit of "liberty" in the name of achieving "happiness" was easily slanted this way. The Republican Tea party broadened the support. Bernie Sanders' call for a universal single-payer health-care system, along Canadian or European lines, was met with libertarian attacks that this would make America socialist -- even if such a system can be shown to extend health care to everyone and reduce overall costs.
The libertarian view easily fed into the spread of neoliberalism. Perpetual global economic growth for profit was the new end-game. The freedom to accumulate grew along with the big-box stores. Mass advertising stimulated demand; wants were transformed into perceived needs. China was willing to produce almost anything that Walmart could successfully sell.
Neoliberalism was always fundamentally flawed. But the movers and shakers in western societies conveniently overlooked those flaws:
With their simplistic formulas for fiscal austerity, neoliberal politicians offloaded debt from the government onto families. We were left free to pursue private childcare, if we could find and afford it, but were not free from scarcity, high costs and family anxiety.
The growing private, for-profit market of consumer choices steadily undercut communitarian norms. It accelerated the growth of narcissistic behavior. The growth in identity politics has added to our confusion.
The libertarian view of "rights" has been much more influential than we want to admit. Rights can't exist without responsibilities. We can't expect to have our rights respected if we don't take responsibility to protect the rights of others. This pandemic creates a very new context for the politics of difference and the politics of resentment.
The coronavirus has underscored those weaknesses. And we are relearning lessons which we forgot:
Rather than us being protected from this pandemic by being free from a government authority, our freedom to continue to eat, to have electricity and heat, and to access healthcare if we need it, is solidly based on socio-economic infrastructures being quickly reorganized by authority that flows both ways.
Academic and scientific freedom from authoritarian or largely ignorant politicians facilitates the freedom to execute a rational pandemic strategy. International cooperation accelerates creating a vaccine. Local capacity to do testing and contact tracing is going to be essential to enable any easing of social isolation that won't, in turn, risk the virus returning to the wider province or country. Responsible, informed authority will enhance human freedom and security.
When this is over, will we forget what we have so recently relearned?
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