You attribute the cause to the end of the cold war which I don't disagree
with, but if the cold war and the beliefs it represented world wide are
today seen as problematic what do we see as its solution. Neoliberalism
worldwide seems to have a selective memory of an earlier time. We decenter
the state giving the appearance of local control while as you pointed out
the global arena (IMF) dictates many of these policies. While I am not an
expert on foreign policy they do remind me of some of the dealings of the
U.S. with Latin America at the beginning of the century. While there are
characteristics of neoliberalism that are new they seem to hold on to a
discourse of selected memory from an earlier time. We talk of
decentralization, we must be "de" ing from something or toward something.
However; I do agree the "de"ing is more discursive than material. My Y2K
comment is probably best seen as in response to the neoliberalism discourse
not its materiality.
Nate
----- Original Message -----
From: George McKinlay <mckinlay who-is-at unr.edu>
To: <xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 10:47 AM
Subject: Re: rush to the middle
>
>
> > Maybe its the Y2K thing, but it seems the clocks are being turned
> > back a hundred years or so.
>
> nate wrote:
>
> I'd look less at a ticking clock for cause and instead posit the winding
> down of the Cold War. The neo-liberal agenda not only dismantles the
> ameliorative aspects of "social welfare" but also serves to remove the
> government (and thus public impact on the economic sphere if we still
> believe in "a government of the people by the people") from any real
> impact on the economic sphere. Michael Apple I think refers to this as
> the privatizing of profit while making costs public.
>
> We don't see much mentioned in the media here, but the educator-student
> strike at one of the largest universities in the world UNAM* (+250,000
> students I think) is as much a product of the IMF-World Bank dictates as
> local issues. The same goes for the educator strikes in Argentina where
> the government has effectively abdicated its social responsibility
> through selling off state owned utilities... Now the Argentine
> government claims it can no longer afford to rub two cents together for
> social needs--talk about self fulfilling prophecies...
>
> Look to the less powerful nations to see what is coming to the US. GM or
> Ford have no more of an allegiance to the US as they did to the
> residents of Flint Michigan.
>
> At the Mexico-US border goods have greater freedom of movement than
> people--it really sums up the sorts of "freedom" that neo-liberalism
> champions...
>
> 'nuf said....
>
> *National Autonomous University of Mexico
>
>
> > Nate Schmolze
> > http://www.geocities.com/~nschmolze/
> > schmolze who-is-at students.wisc.edu People with great passions, people who
> > accomplish great deeds,
> > People who possess strong feelings even people with great minds
> > and a strong personality, rarely come out of good little boys and
> > girls
> > L.S. Vygotsky
>