Cutting the fat

[Jovial Monk]

You hit the "Quote" button I guess.

[Lefteee]

What we have is a cacophony of individual narratives, everyone wants to be the author of their own lives, no one wants to be relegated to a part in a bigger story; everyone wants to give their opinion, no one wants to listen. It's enchanting, it's liberating, but ultimately it's disempowering because you need a collective, not individual, narrative to achieve change

The above qoute is by someone who has observed that the catastrophic failure of neo-liberalism has failed to bring about change. The system's corpse has been re-animated using the biggest net transfer of common or public wealth to private profit in history. The institutions that had grown "too big to fail", were rescued from death's door caused by their own greed - and simply set free to do it all over again (according to Professor Randy Wray from the university of Michigan, the next bubble in financial derivatives is already underway, this time in life insurance since sub-prime mortgages are now a dead end). The message effectively sent to the Gods of finance is "do whatever the fuck you like - the state will always use public money to bail you out".

But I think the author has a point that the public are unable to press for change, partly because they are unaware that any alternatives to the current system are even possible. The victory of neo-liberalism over people's thinking has been so complete and so long running that the possibility of something better or even just different has been smashed to dust and swept away long ago. The same system has also emphasised the replacement of collective values with individual values, and this has had significant success. Many people may be angry with the system but have no idea of the power of collective will - it has been conditioned out of people's consciousness.

It may be that many countries will continue to wallow in a mire, unable to really pull themselves out because those in power on both sides of the political spectrum can offer no alternative course. All they continue to offer is more of the same that got us here in the first place.