Henry Giroux On the Rise of Neoliberalism As a Political Ideology

I think this highlights the false dichotomy between communism and market capitalism that was created in the 1980's.   The dichotomy was more properly between communist government and democracy, of the primacy of the individual over the primacy of the organization and the state, as embodied in fascism and the real world implementations of communism. 

But we never think of it that way any more, if at all.  It is one of the greatest public relation coups in history.  One form of organizational oppression by the Russian nomenklatura was replaced by the oppression by the oligarchs and their Corporations.

Market capitalism has taken the place of democratic ideals as the primary good as embodied in the original framing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  It is no accident that the individual and their concerns has become subordinated to the corporate welfare and their profits.

The market is the highest good has stood on the shoulders of the 'greed is good' philosophy promulgated by the me generation, and has turned the Western democracies on their heads, as a series of political leaders have capitulated to this false idol of money as the measure of all things .

This is a brief excerpt. You may read the entire interview here.

Henry Giroux on the Rise of Neoliberalism
19 October 2014
By Michael Nevradakis, Truthout

"...We're talking about an ideology marked by the selling off of public goods to private interests; the attack on social provisions; the rise of the corporate state organized around privatization, free trade, and deregulation; the celebration of self interests over social needs; the celebration of profit-making as the essence of democracy coupled with the utterly reductionist notion that consumption is the only applicable form of citizenship.

But even more than that, it upholds the notion that the market serves as a model for structuring all social relations: not just the economy, but the governing of all of social life...

That's a key issue. I mean, this is a particular political and economic and social project that not only consolidates class power in the hands of the one percent, but operates off the assumption that economics can divorce itself from social costs, that it doesn't have to deal with matters of ethical and social responsibility, that these things get in the way.

And I think the consequences of these policies across the globe have caused massive suffering, misery, and the spread of a massive inequalities in wealth, power, and income. Moreover, increasingly, we are witnessing a number of people who are committing suicide because they have lost their pensions, jobs and dignity.

We see the attack on the welfare state; we see the privatization of public services, the dismantling of the connection between private issues and public problems, the selling off of state functions, deregulations, an unchecked emphasis on self-interest, the refusal to tax the rich, and really the redistribution of wealth from the middle and working classes to the ruling class, the elite class, what the Occupy movement called the one percent. It really has created a very bleak emotional and economic landscape for the 99 percent of the population throughout the world."