How did I stumble on this clarion call TO WAKE UP to the Neoliberal religion! Sadly, this religion/ideology has been so fully naturalized that it is invisible to most people. I have been trying to make this point for years, but this lecture/book is brilliant and desperately needed. It's also good to see that there are actual Christians alive and well in the world. I had nearly given up hope.
Watching this again. It is important to have real Christians waking up and representing the essential message of Jesus in public discourse. Thus McCarraher's passion.
“The Enchantments of Mammon” is far beyond anything either author has written in terms of scope. Hedges has the eloquence but would have to dedicate another decade or two to research before he could do justice to that book. That book makes sense of periods where they used old English and makes the meaning of their writing digestible. Chomsky nor Hedges can do that.
Thank you for this incredibly insightful presentation and discussion by and with one of the best contemporary left thinkers. I hope this helps fuel our imagination for a more sane and humane world than the banal neoliberal capitalism currently on offer.
Love the talk, but how McCarragher can say 'the recourse to recondite terminology to exclude and beguile the incognoscenti' without any hint of irony is absolutely beyond me
One thing that has not aged well (as the kids say today) about the Network speech is that several of the supposedly invincible companies listed are now shells of what they once were. (Although it seems that all of them, even IT&T, still exist in some form. Good thing he did not mention Sears or Polaroid!)
I just ordered Enchantments. Does he discuss the connection between Ruskin and C. Rhodes? I am pretty sure he was a direct student of Ruskin. I know for sure that most of the round table set and/ or Milner's kindergarten folks were.
McCarrahar seems to have worked himself up into such a state of moral indignation that his descriptions of neoliberalism and recent political and economic history are hard to recognize. For example, for McCarrahar, Angela Merkel talking about conforming democracy to markets is as bald a statement as you will find about the total submission of democratic politics to capitalism. But for someone aware of the reality of the EU with its 200 000 or so pages of regulation, it just seems like Merkel might have been trying to reassure her audience that she was aware that government stifling the free movement of goods and services was an issue. Market signals, which she references, can actually be distorted by government regulation, in a way that produces unintended, often destabilizing, often stifling consequences. This is a reality. I do think we need to bring a Christian, moral perspective to markets, but it does seem like those with impassioned moral perspectives on political issues are often thereby blinded to more pragmatic concerns, trade-offs, problem-solving, and a more cool-headed assessment of reality, which are essential to acting well and public policy.
How did I stumble on this clarion call TO WAKE UP to the Neoliberal religion! Sadly, this religion/ideology has been so fully naturalized that it is invisible to most people. I have been trying to make this point for years, but this lecture/book is brilliant and desperately needed.
It's also good to see that there are actual Christians alive and well in the world. I had nearly given up hope.
theres always hope
Watching this again. It is important to have real Christians waking up and representing the essential message of Jesus in public discourse. Thus McCarraher's passion.
Agreed, this was an amazing lecture (including the dunk on Ben Shapiro 😂). Can't wait to finally read the book.
Is McCarraher Catholic?
A barnstorming tour de force. Must read the book sometime. Thanks for the upload.
Up there with Chomsky and Chris Hedges.
“The Enchantments of Mammon” is far beyond anything either author has written in terms of scope. Hedges has the eloquence but would have to dedicate another decade or two to research before he could do justice to that book. That book makes sense of periods where they used old English and makes the meaning of their writing digestible. Chomsky nor Hedges can do that.
Thank you for this incredibly insightful presentation and discussion by and with one of the best contemporary left thinkers. I hope this helps fuel our imagination for a more sane and humane world than the banal neoliberal capitalism currently on offer.
Love the talk, but how McCarragher can say 'the recourse to recondite terminology to exclude and beguile the incognoscenti' without any hint of irony is absolutely beyond me
One thing that has not aged well (as the kids say today) about the Network speech is that several of the supposedly invincible companies listed are now shells of what they once were. (Although it seems that all of them, even IT&T, still exist in some form. Good thing he did not mention Sears or Polaroid!)
I just ordered Enchantments. Does he discuss the connection between Ruskin and C. Rhodes? I am pretty sure he was a direct student of Ruskin. I know for sure that most of the round table set and/ or Milner's kindergarten folks were.
Out of ignorance, who's Rhoades, Ruskin, and Milner?
Late, but John Ruskin, Cecil Rhodes and Lord Milner
McCarrahar seems to have worked himself up into such a state of moral indignation that his descriptions of neoliberalism and recent political and economic history are hard to recognize. For example, for McCarrahar, Angela Merkel talking about conforming democracy to markets is as bald a statement as you will find about the total submission of democratic politics to capitalism. But for someone aware of the reality of the EU with its 200 000 or so pages of regulation, it just seems like Merkel might have been trying to reassure her audience that she was aware that government stifling the free movement of goods and services was an issue. Market signals, which she references, can actually be distorted by government regulation, in a way that produces unintended, often destabilizing, often stifling consequences. This is a reality. I do think we need to bring a Christian, moral perspective to markets, but it does seem like those with impassioned moral perspectives on political issues are often thereby blinded to more pragmatic concerns, trade-offs, problem-solving, and a more cool-headed assessment of reality, which are essential to acting well and public policy.