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April 11, 2007
My interpretation of neo-liberal's political rationality is that it is opposed to the trend towards higher government spending and increasing dependency on government benefits and services, and that we would choose to (prefer) to live in an affluent country where most people manage their own affairs without having to rely heavily on government to provide them with what they need. Social democratic policies are deemed to be backward-looking.
This implies that instead of depending on the welfare state the family is an autonomous social unity or group responsible for its own maintenance and care. Consequently, the neo-liberal mode of governance creates a moral imperative upon the families of the sick to adopt a caring role, while conversely, allowing for increasing regulation of the family by professional carers through the creation of formal mechanisms for carer involvement in provision of health services and the codification of carers' rights and responsibilities.
One side of the mode of governance is individualistic, and based upon policies of personal responsibility, self-advancement and entrepreneurship; the other side is imbued with the language of community and social capital. The existence of individualism and community within the same policy agenda may appear contradictory yet they coexist.
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Despite all the cant about "freedom" the CIS etc etc are all apologists for the corporate state or the military-industrial complex. (I do carry on dont I?)
Or put in another way the inherently dehumanising one dimensional "culture" of scientism which reduces everything, including human beings, to hard edged objects. One of the inevitable by-products of which is the USA gun-"culture" which is championed by the CIS equivalents in the USA.
These 2 essays by my favourite philosopher address the issues of True Freedom, Culture and the "family".
1. www.dabase.org/sacrstat.htm
2 www.dabase.org/coopdoub.htm
Plus I quite like these two superb books by Thom Hartmann ( "We the People" and "Unequal Protection") which address the issue of how Corporations took over the USA and world body politic, and what "we the people" need to do to reclaim our rightful power.