Customer Reviews

The Terror of Neoliberalism: Authoritarianism and the Eclipse of Democracy (Cultural Politics and the Promise of Democracy)

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This book is essential, but be warned, it is almost relentlessly grim.

As it should be, for it paints the United States as a country spinning away from any semblance of an actual, functioning democracy and into a web where capitalism is the new democracy and public participation in the phenomenon that shape our lives is largely removed or rendered a cynical joke. Giroux examines neoliberalism as the main 'philosophy' or force that has driven the USA toward a more private society where the social contract is chipped away, job, life, and health security are weakened to strengthen authority, inequality has gone through the roof, and of course, money rules. That it's now easier to imagine the end of the world before the end of the current strain of capitalism (which has pretty much replaced democracy) just about says it all.

Giroux covers the erosion of public debate, where the complete corruption of terms neutralizes discussion and discourages thinking ('conservative', 'liberal', 'terrorism', etc, etc), the slow death of public space, public service, and the obsessive privatization of life, and other major phenomenon you never hear about in the news because you'd probably want to kill yourself, or do something about it.

He's certainly not off point, if anything, he's rightfully disgusted about the state of affairs. Where is the outrage, he asks. As for the Bush administration, it's not new, it's just more extreme in its vision of an 'ownership society' and in the empty rhetoric of 'rugged individualism' and 'freedom from the government' that is, of course, a weapon against the common schlep who can only increase their human value by positioning themselves as profit-generators. The poor subsidize the rich, absorbing risk while the dough pours into the same few pockets. Everybody else can rent themselves out to whoever decides to keep jobs in the USA, where we endlessly consume while producing less and less. And the government, well, it's this terrible, meddlesome, flabby entity that should be cut down to size because it's restricting all of us. Unless, of course, that same government works overtime to protect the rich from the market forces that would destroy them as it bails out failing companies, enacts tariffs, and gives huge breaks to those who need it least so that we can all survive but hiring ourselves out to the same folks. If you're lucky, maybe you can work at a nice suburban office park that your favorite credit card or cell phone company has decided to establish in your area.

Judging by this sober assessment, the US of A is heading down the tubes, and fast. What does one do? The time to act is now, it seems, though our choices are fewer and fewer. When we're all sitting in front of a computer for 8-10 hours a day doing intellectually bankrupt work for pathological institutions that threaten to toss us out because we don't fit into their Excel columns, cost too much to take care of because of a massively inefficient health care system, and are subject to huge phenomenon that nobody really bothers to address in the pursuit of cash, I guess we can all hope we're near the blast radius when mankind decides to finally blow up the world.

Not the most cheerful book, it's a cold, hard look at what has happened to the state of democracy in the USA, and how the forces of capital have boxed and wrapped every facet of life, destroying anything the founding fathers had in mind. Time to go live in the woods.

I have read most of Chomsky, Bauman, Parenti, Klein, Berman and Johnson amongst others. That being said, the politics (dissident, progressive, left-leaning) are not an issue for me. What is at issue is the deplorable writing style and unstructured ranting that defines this horribly written book. The Chapters are meaningless as each subject or topic is subject to tangents ranting on everything from George Forman's shilling of electric grills to reality TV being an indictment of the me-first competitive nature that now (only now?) defines America. Again, the left leaning progressive politics are not an issue for me. Yet, I will not suffer apologist politics that seeks blame of everyone and anyone but those who are affected. I will not succumb to a political belief that aggressively seeks to place blame always on the footsteps of American culture and politics. There is a lot to dislike about the US right now, but not everything, as this author would have you believe.
Furthermore, I don't think he has a clue of what Neoliberalism is. I've read Chomsky's take, and Wallach's in depth study, and after reading Giroux the stark leaps in logic, and the undocumented, unreasoned, unsubstantiated, and unbelievable indictments of everything wrong with America being accredited to neoliberalism reads like the ranting of an old, guilt-laden white hippy. A good author, or teacher as it were, has you leaving his/her book with an entire new manner of understanding, or contemplating. Giroux has you walking away contemplating whether you should bother finishing the disjointed screed. The best parts are the quotes lifted from Bauman. Buy Bauman!

I read this and others for a class in college. You'll definately need some coffee for this read and diligence. I was raised republican and it was hard to see all the republican hate mongering. However it eventually showed you the other half of the story. I feel more well rounded socio-politically now.

Henry A. Giroux's discussion of the current state of the American political environment and its neoliberal policy design has proven to be an excellent introduction and analysis of the motivations, resulting consequences, and possible future of a country afflicted with a cold, uncompassionate, and simplistic political, cultural, and militaristic direction. The Terror of Neoliberalism is a well-researched illumination of the current American political administration's real motivations and the policy, that which is now known as neoliberalism, which is being used to forward their agenda. Giroux draws on a two centuries' worth of progressive thinkers to form a coherent and cogent exposé of the latest trends in an economic capitalist system that has achieved an unfettered, deregulated, and unrestricted state never before seen. Drawing on the tome of knowledge produced by the likes of profound Marxists thinkers such as Antonio Gramsci, Ernst Bloch, and Jacques Derrida as well as the likes of engaged public intellectuals like the late Edward Said and Noam Chomsky, Giroux has formulated an eye-opening critique of contemporary America.

The strengths of the book lie within its ability to connect neoliberalism and its policy initiatives with the real life affects and consequences of its execution. Giroux discusses many aspects of complex American identities affected by these schemes, which include cultural, educational, racial, militaristic, and commercial realms. I believe that The Terror of Neoliberalism provides both the inexperienced reader and the engaged academic citizen with explanations and examples regarding neoliberalism's design and results of its implementation. Giroux does, what I consider, a wonderful job of tying together the American neoliberal policy environment with its resultant views of a newly designed racism, an abandonment of the future of the country through a disregard, mistrust, and neglect of youth, as well as the insipid nature of neoliberalism's absolute invasion of the culture arguably leading toward a new type of authoritarianism.

Unfortunately, Giroux finds himself repeating sections of the book verbatim throughout many of the chapters, which frustrates the flow of the reading and interrupts the continuity of the text. While these misgivings can be overlooked and the message of the book still readily grasped and undeniably appreciated, I have also found that the book lacks a good historical understanding of the origin and evolution of the neoliberal movement. This movement often traced back to the leadership of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, but arguably traced back further to the post-WWII era with the establishment of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as the execution of the Marshall Plan is largely ignored in the book. While I find this to be a fundamental flaw in a text that works to elucidate a developing and frightening neoliberal tradition, the text still does an excellent job of providing the reader with a contemporary understanding of the terrifying outcomes of this policy design.

Giroux's book is admirable in its avoidance of defeatism in the face of an extremely well executed attack on civic freedom, critical intellectualism, and general welfare-state necessity. The Terror of Neoliberalism does not just leave the reader in a state of disbelief and depression at the harsh reality of American life, but provides the reader with an understanding of both how to critique the current political environment, and advice as well as theoretical designs for how to organize and resist its seeping infiltration of every aspect of life. Readers of Giroux's book will hopefully find themselves outraged and at the same time motivated to change the environment which they have been presented.