The path from Neoliberalism to Populism

[Jon Freise]

Why worry about how we got here when the plane is upside down and on fire?  Shouldn't I be focusing on figuring out how to get the emergency doors open?  Yes, and no.  I don't think Trump and Musk are the source of the problem, I think they are a symptom.  And that if they were removed, we would very quickly have another pair.  There are much larger forces that have created this crisis and if we don't figure out what they are we are as likely to make things worse as better.

I have found some very helpful academic perspectives on how neoliberalism (policies that move wealth upward) lead to our current crisis:

Resilience had this very good post:

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-02-18/the-steps-to-an-american-oligarchy/

I followed some of its links back and thought these two articles both very good:

https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2024/12/after-neoliberalism-dynamics-of.html

https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2021/04/why-neoliberalisms-evolution-into.html

It is especially helpful to see an explanation of how Trump could steal the Republican base out from under the establishment and then implement anti neoliberal policies like Tariffs (cheap overseas labor) and blocking Immigration (cheap domestic labor).  (That the Democrats are fighting both policies shows just how far from a pro-labor party it has become.  There are only pro capital mainstream parties in the US.)

The challenge for the right wing parties, and the US as a whole, is that the only way down is actually through policies that spread the wealth.  And the right cannot vote through those policies.  So they cannot resolve the underlying problem.

This is why monarchies would go through periodic state crisis and civil war.  They have to vote against their own interests to spread the wealth to others.  Trump and Musk are not up to that task.  I would not expect high deportation rates.  Or actual tariffs that impact Tesla, etc.  But I would expect cuts to any benefits to the lower and middle class.  Thus accelerating the decline of the nations productivity.

-Jon

[Demi Miller]

Jon. Thanks for your thoughtful (as usual) analysis.

What Trump and Musk are good at is continuing to divide us as a nation - they know how to push the right buttons to "own the libs" and keep rural and small town Americans poor in wealth and opportunity but rich in anti-urban propaganda, and misanthropic bile!

Part of why I keep emphasizing the importance of reclaiming our Emotional Competence is recognizing how & why our buttons get pushed (and why we have such a lifetime of explosive energy stuffed inside of all of us just waiting to get triggered!) 

And the advocates/acolytes of authoritarian power know how to keep those pots bubbling inside us with barely suppressed anger and hatred - obsessive and ultimately self-destructive - but highly effective in maintaining a tight lid on all other emotions: fear, grief, joy, vulnerability, surprise, celebration, compassion.

We have all been raised to fit into a high-stress, high-conflict, high-consumption social milieu.  We have too little slack time to just be with each other.  Our world (from day one) is too bright, too loud, too hyper-kinetic.  The watch-word for our "fast-thinking", binary brains is "More!!" That's the sacred mantra of those who have become infected with terminal cases of affluenza - and the only thing that matters at some point in the lives of those men hooked on their ultra-wealthy life trajectory! (Speed, ketamine, sexploitation, sports betting, multi-mansions, etc.) We used to say "The Sky's the Limit" - now it's Mars!

What we've lost is any access to our "slow-thinking', analog brains (and the associated watch-word, which is "Enough!") Inflated Egos tie together our most primal Id-based gratification seeking with quick, simplistic mental answers to then justify our impulsive actions - a dangerous closed-loop process.

We very much need to access our slow-thinking, analog brains to be able to ask ourselves more questions - to cultivate more curiosity and settle for less certainty.  That means cultivating our bonds as a component of a caring, playful community - where empathy and trust allow us time and space to grow(up) as emotional/spiritual beings in fellowship with one another. 

Our logical thinking brains love to indulge in hindsight - working and reworking our explanations til our analysis is perfectly polished and all the gears meshing! (Then we clap our hands and declare that we've done all the hard work and worked out the logical path - with the thought that "I've done my part - somebody else can actually go and do it now - just follow my blueprint here!"

It's much harder to figure out just the first step or two that we know are heading us in the right direction and then organizing a group of fellow travelers to join us on the unfolding journey! Taking the time to carefully disarm and defuse our own minefields will give us greater power to move forward without getting constantly triggered - and harnessing all that explosive energy into a very focused slow-burn, non-destructive strategy!  In that process we also acquire comrades and allies in our shared struggles.

Just my ramblings.

  -in Love and Peace,
			-Demi Miller

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”
	 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan 

"Those who can make you believe absurdities
    can make you commit atrocities"
	       -Voltaire

"Pessimism of the intellect, Optimism of the Will."  
		- Antonio Gramsci

"We can have Democracy in this country, 
    or we can have great wealth concentrated
    in the hands of a few.....
        but we cannot have both."
	       -Louis D. Brandeis

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government
 owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. 
 To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance 
 between corrupt business and corrupt politics,is the first task
 of the statesmanship of the day."
		- Theodore Roosevelt, April 19, 1906

"There is more to life than increasing its speed."
	       -Gandhi

"Whenever the people are well-informed,
 They can be trusted with their own Government."
           	       -Thomas Jefferson,  1789

"I decided to accept as true, my own thinking."
                    -Georgia O'Keefe 

"We know how to transform this world to reduce our impact on nature
 by several fold, how to provide meaningful, dignified living-wage jobs
 for all who seek them, and how to feed, clothe, and house
 every person on earth.

 What we don't know is how to remove those in power, those whose
 ignorance of biology is matched only by their indifference
 to human suffering. 

 This is a political issue. It is not an ecological problem."
	- Paul Hawken, from a speech in Oct. 2002

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[Jon Freise]

Hi Demi,

I agree that finding ways to control our own emotional activation is critical.  A very concrete example is the death of Ashli Babbitt.  She attacked the capitol with the goal of preserving democracy.  The police agent who shot her had exactly the same goal.  How did they come to be enemies?  Her information system had become so confused that she could no longer distinguish friend from foe.

The metaphor I am turning over in my mind is that we are dealing with an infection.  That infection is causing an inflaming immune response so strong that the body becomes confused about what is the real infection and attacks and destroys itself.  A key piece to preventing civil war is to help everyone recognize what is the real infectious agent and which is the inflamed body cell.  This is why the infecting agents are so desperate to control the media and spread disinformation.

The covid infection has this very trait: once it gets into the lungs the body would start to destroy its own lung tissue in last ditch defense.  By giving a person a steroid, part of the immune response was suppressed, allowing the person to survive long enough that the build up of anti bodies could clear the virus.  (I have a lot more I could say about biological analogies to our current situation, but that is for another post, so I will stop here.)

I see a lot of online rage and anger going back and forth between the different "sides".  This is just increasing the self damaging immune response.  We all feel the fear and the anger from that fear.  But we need a very targeted response.  So I think that in this case the best response is the hippocratic oath "First, do no harm".  Slow down.  Figure out what is the real infection, and then move against that.  Or if you cannot move against it, help your fellow body cells to become less inflamed.

There is good reason for fear.  This is a scary time.  It has already been lethal for some (ex. those dependent on US AID or the people of Ukraine).  And we do need to move into action.  As Patton said "A good plan today is better than a great plan tomorrow".  Those first actions should all be around slowing the damage.  Getting clarity of what is happening.  Calming those around us.  And pulling together ideas on what actions can have a positive effect, without provoking a greater self harming effect.

I think you are on the right path Demi.  I am sorry I was not able to attend your workshop.  

I actually think that the Quakers have been on the right path for a long time: through shared decision making in support of real personal freedom, non-violent communication, assertiveness, abolition, religious freedom, etc.  Long term, those are the changes in cultural values that will underpin a strong democracy and prevent this kind of backsliding into autocracy.

-Jon

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