Ep. 58: The Neoliberal Optimism Industry
Added 2018-11-28 15:57:08 +0000 UTCWe're told the world is getting better all the time. In January, The New York Times' Nick Kristof explained "Why 2017 Was the Best Year in Human History." The same month, Harvard professor and Bill Gates' favorite optimist Steven Pinker lamented (in a special edition of Time magazine guest edited by - who else? - Bill Gates) the “bad habits of media bring out the worst in human cognition”. By focusing so much on negative things, the theory goes, we are tricked into thinking things are getting worse when, in reality, it's actually the opposite.
For the TEDtalk set, that the world is awesome and still improving is self-evidently true - just look at the data. But how true is this popular axiom? How accurate is the portrayal that the world is improving we so often seen in sexy, hockey stick graphs of upward growth and rapidly declining poverty? And how, exactly, are the powers that be "measuring" improvements in society?
On this episode, we take a look at the ideological project of telling us everything's going swimmingly, how those in power cook the books and spin data to make their case for maintaining the status quo, and how The Neoliberal Optimism Industry is, at its core, an anti-intellectual enterprise designed to lull us into complacency and political impotence.
Our guest is Dr. Jason Hickel.
Guest
Dr. Jason Hickel is an anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has taught at the London School of Economics, the University of Virginia, and Goldsmiths, University of London, where he convenes the MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics. He serves on the Labour Party task force on international development, works as Policy Director for /The Rules collective, sits on the Executive Board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) and the International Editorial Advisory Board of Third World Quarterly.
Jason is a contributor to The Guardian, and his writing has been featured in Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Fast Company, Prospect, Jacobin, Le Monde Diplomatique, Red Pepper, Truthout, and Monthly Review. His most recent book, The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions, was published by Penguin Random House in 2017.
Follow him @jasonhickel.
***
Show Notes
Aid in reverse: how poor countries develop rich countries
Jason Hickel | January 14, 2017 | The Guardian
Let's Put An End To 'Horseshoe Theory' Once And For All
Noah Berlatsky | February 9, 2018 | Pacific Standard
Thomas Friedman’s Crazy Poor Economics
Jim Naureckas | September 6, 2018 | FAIR
A Self-Enriching Pact: Imperialism and the Global South
Andy Higginbottom | June 19, 2018 | Review of African Political Economy
Reverse Robin Hood: The Historical Scam of Global Development
Levi Vonk | July 19, 2017 | Los Angeles Review of Books
Enough of aid – let’s talk reparations
Jason Hickel | November 27, 2015 | The Guardian
Forget 'developing' poor countries, it's time to 'de-develop' rich countries
Jason Hickel | September 23, 2015 | The Guardian
How The Left Killed Universities (And Everything Else)
Nathan J. Robinson | September 13, 2018 | Current Affairs
Do resource extraction and the legacy of colonialism keep poor countries poor?
Simon Reid Henry | October 22, 2012 | The Guardian
***
Pinker, Friedman, and Stephens, Oh My!
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker (Review)
David Runciman | September 22, 2011 | The Guardian
The Mind Meld of Bill Gates and Steven Pinker
Philip Galanes | January 27, 2018 | The New York Times
Thomas Friedman | September 4, 2018 | The New York Times
Steven Pinker’s Ideas About Progress Are Fatally Flawed. These Eight Graphs Show Why.
Jeremy Lent | May 17, 2018 | Patterns of Meaning
Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and war
John Gray | March 13, 2015 | The Guardian
John Gray | February 22, 2018 | The New Statesman
David A Bell | March 7, 2018 | The Nation
Exposing the great 'poverty reduction' lie
Jason Hickel | August 21, 2014 | Al Jazeera
Haiti, Sudan, Côte d'Ivoire: Who Cares?
Bret Stephens | January 11, 2011 | The Wall Street Journal
Steven Pinker | June 26, 2006 | The New Republic
Thomas Friedman on Charlie Rose (May 29, 2003)
****
Further Reading
Joseph Conrad | 1898 | Blackwood's Magazine
In Kurtz’s World: Joseph Conrad and the violence of civilization
Greg Grandin | May 3, 2018 | The Nation
Tim Stanley | October 10, 2012 | History Today
Benjamin Teryima Ashaver | September-October 2013 | IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science
Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa
Horace Campbell | July 1, 2015 | Monthly Review
Problems of Third World Development
Walter Rodney | May 30, 1972 | African Studies Center, UCLA
*****
Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
******
Comments
Dear Linguistic Society of America, This is an open letter by members of the linguistics community calling for the removal of Dr. Steven Pinker from both our list of distinguished academic fellows and our list of media experts. https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ZqWl5grm_F5Kn_0OarY9Q2jlOnk200PvhM5e3isPvY/preview?pru=AAABcz91i0c*5AVC2Br6mvzu8yBuQZsdXw
2020-07-06 09:25:28 +0000 UTCThis topic seems especially important and many people know less than they should? Can i humbly ask you unlock this one for everyone?
Jasper
2018-12-10 10:37:44 +0000 UTC
