With hopes that I would be forgiven for resuming a slightly out of vein topic, I would like to draw attention to a topic that was touched upon in the last class. I talk here of Neoliberalism and its structure/ operationalization. While often times we seem to criticize the neoliberal project with confidence as castigate it for most of the evils that the planet is witnessing – in so doing this we cast the neoliberal project as a singular, monolithic, overarching influence that has its impact in practically every sphere of international activities. This being said, I want to refer specifically, to the taking of a similar stance in the American neoliberal interventions in the middle –east. While castigating the new empire we take for granted its absolute power and the control it exerts thereby in the region. I however happened to listen to talks by Tariq Ali and Arundhati Roy (both names were mentioned in the Schueller piece) where both maintained a line of thought that translated into saying that the US does not have any idea of what it is doing in the region and how to control it, both stressed the latter point. This leads me to reiterate the doubt that u had in mind in the last class. Is it safe/ right on our part to attribute the authority that we attribute to the US forces that we do? If the forces are not in total control of the geopolitical scape, how are they expected to enforce single point neoliberal agendas? By no means do I doubt the validity of the preceding claim; my concern is with the understanding and theorizing of the neoliberal enterprise. I raise doubts to buttress our understanding of neoliberalism so that we do not fail to capture any aspect of the vicious force.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFDcGnupj8E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Vhs8ulNZQ
Comments