The violence is in the laws of the nations. Neo-liberalism is the ideology at the root of all our problems and it is legal. Slavery in a different form. This is the reality: slavery is violence. It's physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. It's forced prostitution. Low pay and other minimal benefits at work cause some people to be in a state of neo-slavery. They are nominally free individuals and are not the property of others, but their economic standing and power is so limited that they have to work for whatever they can get; and just put up with it. This state of neo-slavery is not accidental, it is the outcome of neo-liberalism, the economic orthodoxy that now dominates the globe. Deregulation of markets, the privatisation of publicly owned assets, the shift in the disproportionate share of income and wealth controlled by a ruling elite, together with burgeoning inequality are all advocated in the name of the free markets as a scientific reality. Neo-liberalism has such a powerful grip that it is rarely discussed by name. These are just the way things are. I argue that the supposed inevitability of the neo-liberal agenda is driven more by blind faith than scientific objectivity. As such it is a religion pretending to be a science. Indeed the rampant inequality resulting from the neo-liberal prayer book is counter-productive, because more egalitarian societies are more successful, and are happier places to live. Violence has not declined. Just the opposite. Neo-liberalism is violence evolved. I'll leave with a quote.
“If I determine the enemy's disposition of forces while I have no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless: if it is formless, then even the deepest spy cannot discern it nor the wise make plans against it.”
- Sun Tzu - The Art of War
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