Dissection of a doomed doctrine

Paul Sagar

IF YOU HAVE SPENT ANY TIME in leftist spaces over the past 20 years, you’ll have heard repeatedly that the cause of our many social and political ills is neoliberalism. It is rather like the experience of the great social anthropologist, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, during his time living among the Azande people of Central Africa. Evans-Pritchard noted the ubiquitous tendency of the Azande to attribute bad events to the effects of witchcraft. Blight ruined the groundnut crop? Witchcraft! No game to be had in the bush? Witchcraft! Wife sulky and ignoring you? Witchcraft! Banged your toe and now it’s infected? Witchcraft! Everything bad, it seemed, the Azande attributed to the malicious activities of bewitching enemies. “Neoliberalism” functions similarly among large portions of the left today. Growing economic inequality? Neoliberalism! Run-away climate…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2022

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