Chile’s early dalliance with neoliberalism also exposes how the latter requires extreme violence or ‘shocks’ — as Naomi Klein argues in The Shock Doctrine — to entrench itself. Klein traces how the massive upheaval the privatisation policies of neoliberal Chile triggered were only implemented under a draconian regime that rested on mass killings and torture which served as the ‘shock’ that allowed Chilean society to become more complaisant towards these radical economic changes.
December 28, 2021Neoliberalism has its origin in the libertarian ideology that cherishes minimal interference in choices made by individuals, allowing them maximum freedom in economic, social, cultural, and personal realms of life.
June 7, 2020Mark Lilla in his The Once and Future Liberal (2017) raises two fundamental questions relating to liberalism ~ a) the basic policies that benefit citizens and how these can be executed; and (b) what are the factors that unite rather than differentiate citizens. In this context, he mentions the black movement in the USA, an...
October 5, 2018Mindfulness is big business, worth in excess of $1bn (£7.2m) in the US alone and linked – somewhat paradoxically – to an expanding range of must-have products. These include downloadable apps (1,300 at the last count), books to read or colour in and online courses. Mindfulness practice and training is now part of a global...
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