some thoughts…
Freedom or Control?
The story we’ve been told about neoliberalism is that it’s a movement to reduce the state’s grip on our lives, to let markets breathe, and to expand our personal freedoms. This narrative, seductive in its simplicity, has been parroted by politicians, economists, and the media for decades.
But beneath the surface of this ideology lies a different agenda—one that has nothing to do with shrinking the state and everything to do with shifting its purpose.
A New Face of State Power
In the 1980s, neoliberalism was championed as the antidote to the supposedly bloated and inefficient state. Thatcher, Reagan, and their ilk promised a new era where government would step back, allowing individuals to thrive through their own initiative.
What happened instead was a reconfiguration of state power, not its retreat. The state was not weakened; it was refocused, its power harnessed to serve the interests of big business and the wealthy elite.
From Citizens to Consumers
Neoliberalism redefined the citizen as a consumer, our worth measured not by our participation in a shared democratic life, but by our ability to spend. The rhetoric of freedom was twisted into a justification for dismantling the social safety nets that had protected the vulnerable, all in the name of ‘efficiency’ and ‘choice.’
But these choices were false, designed to disempower rather than liberate. The “free market” became a smokescreen for the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of a few.
The Fragmentation of Society
This was not the liberation of the individual, but the atomization of society. Where once we might have stood together, recognizing our common interests and acting in solidarity, neoliberalism drove us apart.
We were told that our struggles were our own, that success or failure was a matter of personal responsibility, not the result of structural forces beyond our control. This narrative, appealing as it may be to our sense of individualism, has left us isolated, weakened, and disconnected from one another.
The State’s Role in Neoliberalism
The state, far from being diminished, has been deployed with brutal efficiency to enforce this new order.
The miners beaten back by police in the 1980s, the communities hollowed out by deindustrialization, the public services sold off to the highest bidder—these were not the actions of a retreating state, but of one that had turned its might against its own people in service of a new master.
State Power in Service of Capital
Neoliberalism’s true agenda was never about reducing government interference; it was about redefining that interference to serve the interests of capital. The state became a tool to protect the profits of the wealthy, to enforce the new rules of the game, and to suppress any resistance to this new order.
This is the bitter irony of neoliberalism: it promised freedom but delivered a new kind of tyranny, one where the market dictates our lives and the state enforces its will.
Conclusion: The Fight Against Neoliberal Control
If we are to reclaim our society, we must first understand this agenda. We must see neoliberalism for what it is: not a philosophy of freedom, but a strategy of control. The first step in dismantling this system is to expose its true nature, to recognize that the freedom it offers is a lie, and to demand a state that serves the many, not the few.
This is not merely a political struggle; it is a battle for the very soul of our society, a fight to reclaim the power that has been taken from us and to rebuild a world where freedom is more than just a word.