Chris Knipp
06-13-2025, 12:16 AM
PETER D. HUTCHISON, GEORGE MONBIOT: THE INVISIBLE DOCTRINE: THE SECRET HISTORY OF NEOLIBERALISM (& HOW IT CAME TO CONTROL YOUR LIFE) (2025)
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20reth.jpg
Bad news from George
TRAILER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLNRzqCpCE)
George Monbiot is a British journalist known for his environmental activism. Here he reads a talk jointly composed with Peter D. Hutchison about neoliberalism, which he says is the dominent political philosophy of our day, though it is rarely mentioned, hence "invisible" and "secret." This is an hour-long summary of a book published by Penguin written by Monbiot and Hutchison. When you hear the descripton of what neoliberalism is, it's exactly everything Donald Trump stands for, along with Jair Bolsenaro and others of that ilk. And you realize with horror that it is becoming more and more widespread.
The trouble with this film is that, however lively or striking the illustrative images may be, it is essentially just a lecture, with accompanying (and rather distracting) musical score, including a song by Peter Gabriel. On the plus side, it is no more than the length of a lecture and an introduction, 75 minutes. And there is no doubt that this is information everyone who is not a right wing conservative or willfully ignorant person will want to be aware of.
Because this is a book, and because it is a body of information the writers want viewers/listeners/readers to be apprised of, it also comes with a synopsis:
Synopsis
Neoliberalism – a business-backed ideology committed to cutting taxes, busting trade unions, gutting government regulations, and privatizing public services – is the dominant political and economic philosophy of our time. Yet despite capturing both major parties and shaping and controlling virtually every aspect of our lives, it’s a term that’s rarely mentioned in mainstream media and politics, let alone explained or scrutinized.
In the film, Monbiot tells the story of neoliberalism’s rise to dominance – from an obscure pro-capitalist philosophy in the 1930s to a full blown political project bent on rolling back hard won checks on corporate power in the 1970s to its ultimate embrace at the highest centers of power in the 1980s - signalled by the moment when Ronald Reagan was US President and Margaret Thatcher the UK PM - up to today. Placing special emphasis on the stories that have been told via business-funded think tanks, dark-money conduits, and corporate media outlets to sell neoliberal policies, Monbiot explodes the core neoliberal claim that unregulated corporate capitalism and its belief in the primacy of the free market, deregulation and globalisation is synonymous with freedom and democracy. Far from enhancing freedom and democracy, he argues, neoliberalism’s commitment to corporate capitalism has waged systematic war on both – subordinating freedom to unaccountable concentrations of private power, and undermining democracy by dismantling reforms designed to level the playing field for ordinary Americans. The neoliberal era has brought with it huge disparities between rich and poor.
Along the way, Monbiot surveys neoliberal policies that have been implemented to impose austerity, privatize public resources, financialize the economy, deindustrialize our manufacturing base, and undermine social solidarity movements. Then he chronicles the destruction these policies have left in their wake: from wage stagnation, a dying middle class, rising rates of child poverty, Gilded-Age levels of income inequality, and a plutocratic political system, to endless wars, catastrophic environmental threats, and the kinds of widespread social alienation and despair that are the lifeblood of authoritarianism and fascism.
In the end, Monbiot calls for "a truly participatory democratic political system to repair the damage neoliberalism has done – a system that appeals to us as active citizens rather than consumers and places a premium on the shared heritage of our social, political, and environmental commons. Only when we have a democratic society that values and respects what we hold in common, he argues, will we stand a chance of liberating ourselves from the vicious spiral of isolation, alienation, and environmental destruction that neoliberalism simultaneously breeds and feeds on.
This may all very well be true, and this is a lively and fast-moving film with great instructive value. However, the shortcoming of the film is that its methodology is disappointingly conventional, and it is essentially spoon feeding us throughout. Nonetheless, if any of this is news to you, you'd do well to watch the film.
The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism & How It Came to Contol Your LIfe, 75 mins., theatrically released Jan. 23, 2025 in New Zealand. Released on VOD and digital Jun. 3, 2025.
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20tid.jpg
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20reth.jpg
Bad news from George
TRAILER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeLNRzqCpCE)
George Monbiot is a British journalist known for his environmental activism. Here he reads a talk jointly composed with Peter D. Hutchison about neoliberalism, which he says is the dominent political philosophy of our day, though it is rarely mentioned, hence "invisible" and "secret." This is an hour-long summary of a book published by Penguin written by Monbiot and Hutchison. When you hear the descripton of what neoliberalism is, it's exactly everything Donald Trump stands for, along with Jair Bolsenaro and others of that ilk. And you realize with horror that it is becoming more and more widespread.
The trouble with this film is that, however lively or striking the illustrative images may be, it is essentially just a lecture, with accompanying (and rather distracting) musical score, including a song by Peter Gabriel. On the plus side, it is no more than the length of a lecture and an introduction, 75 minutes. And there is no doubt that this is information everyone who is not a right wing conservative or willfully ignorant person will want to be aware of.
Because this is a book, and because it is a body of information the writers want viewers/listeners/readers to be apprised of, it also comes with a synopsis:
Synopsis
Neoliberalism – a business-backed ideology committed to cutting taxes, busting trade unions, gutting government regulations, and privatizing public services – is the dominant political and economic philosophy of our time. Yet despite capturing both major parties and shaping and controlling virtually every aspect of our lives, it’s a term that’s rarely mentioned in mainstream media and politics, let alone explained or scrutinized.
In the film, Monbiot tells the story of neoliberalism’s rise to dominance – from an obscure pro-capitalist philosophy in the 1930s to a full blown political project bent on rolling back hard won checks on corporate power in the 1970s to its ultimate embrace at the highest centers of power in the 1980s - signalled by the moment when Ronald Reagan was US President and Margaret Thatcher the UK PM - up to today. Placing special emphasis on the stories that have been told via business-funded think tanks, dark-money conduits, and corporate media outlets to sell neoliberal policies, Monbiot explodes the core neoliberal claim that unregulated corporate capitalism and its belief in the primacy of the free market, deregulation and globalisation is synonymous with freedom and democracy. Far from enhancing freedom and democracy, he argues, neoliberalism’s commitment to corporate capitalism has waged systematic war on both – subordinating freedom to unaccountable concentrations of private power, and undermining democracy by dismantling reforms designed to level the playing field for ordinary Americans. The neoliberal era has brought with it huge disparities between rich and poor.
Along the way, Monbiot surveys neoliberal policies that have been implemented to impose austerity, privatize public resources, financialize the economy, deindustrialize our manufacturing base, and undermine social solidarity movements. Then he chronicles the destruction these policies have left in their wake: from wage stagnation, a dying middle class, rising rates of child poverty, Gilded-Age levels of income inequality, and a plutocratic political system, to endless wars, catastrophic environmental threats, and the kinds of widespread social alienation and despair that are the lifeblood of authoritarianism and fascism.
In the end, Monbiot calls for "a truly participatory democratic political system to repair the damage neoliberalism has done – a system that appeals to us as active citizens rather than consumers and places a premium on the shared heritage of our social, political, and environmental commons. Only when we have a democratic society that values and respects what we hold in common, he argues, will we stand a chance of liberating ourselves from the vicious spiral of isolation, alienation, and environmental destruction that neoliberalism simultaneously breeds and feeds on.
This may all very well be true, and this is a lively and fast-moving film with great instructive value. However, the shortcoming of the film is that its methodology is disappointingly conventional, and it is essentially spoon feeding us throughout. Nonetheless, if any of this is news to you, you'd do well to watch the film.
The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism & How It Came to Contol Your LIfe, 75 mins., theatrically released Jan. 23, 2025 in New Zealand. Released on VOD and digital Jun. 3, 2025.
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20tid.jpg