A look at the ideological (or perhaps better "ideological" roots of the 2008/2009 economic collapse. Through this event Gray explores a wide-ranging set of ideas, dreams and fantasies that underlie our current understanding of economics, progress and society. He brings in environmental issues, historical overviews of how western economies have worked, how christianity has mutated into the post-modern neoliberal ideology, underlying assumptions and wishful thinking at the heart of the globalization project.
One of my favourite ideas he explores is the close historical and developmental relationship between communism and neoliberalism - both western, both an aberration of protestant christian religion, both messianic cults of bringing perfection on earth. The defeat of communism as in fact the beginning of the end for dominant western economic and social ideology in general.
Another - the post war period in Europe as a social and economic aberration, where labour actually gained value almost as fast as invested capital, and how this has distorted our view of the nature of politics, social interaction and the role of government. An interesting but unsettling idea, given that this implies my whole experience so far has been in an aberrant historical era, and that we are now living through a readjustment to a different social and economic reality.
There is crossover with the risk and probability ideas of Nicholas Taleb (where I picked up the reference to this book...)
No comments:
Post a Comment