Carrol Cox wrote: > I usually think of clichés as semi-dead metaphors, or at least phrases > (rather than single words) that if looked at 'feel' like a metaphor. > Neoliberalism was/is not a metaphor, and if it is objectionable I > suspect that the diagnosis is not that it's a cliche (any more than > water is a cliche for h20) but a misnomer to begin with, a misnomer, > however, grounded in the ambiguity of the stem term, "liberal." > "Liberal" has always been used in fairly contradictory senses, so > NEOliberal was bound to be vague.
thanks. I don't think all clichés are semi-dead metaphors, since (at least among the left) neoliberalism is a cliché. Neoliberalism has a clear meaning, at least to me: it's a revival of classical (19th century) free-market liberalism. It's confusing, however, since its name is so similar to the main alternative version of liberalism: New Deal liberalism (US "soft" social democracy). For me the meaning of liberalism is clear. It's a political philosophy (or ideology, if you will) which treats society as if it were a collection of a large number of roughly equal individuals (or individual families) and asks: "what's the public interest?" It's exemplified by social contract theory (Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau). > I guess I'm suggesting that the problem is not the presence of a cliché > but the _absence_ of one, i.e., of a technical term (jargon) of > sufficient precision. > > But isn't that the problem with _all_ the major terms of political, > social, or economic debate and/or analysis? We just have continually to > explain _some_ of our labels each time we write to a different audience > or to the same audience on a topic not recently introduced. > > But if you still want a new term for neoliberalism I would suggest > imperialism. ;-> I agree with the term imperialism, though neoliberal imperialism differs from previous flavors of imperialism in some ways. The problem is that for the book I'm writing, the focus is entirely on a US audience and US issues. And I'm presenting a critique of the dominant school of economics, not of the economy. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
