Abstract
This article addresses the proliferation of neoliberal capitalism in the United States as a dominant social imaginary that has colonized the psyches of many U.S. citizens. The notion of “colonization” is used as a heuristic device in combination with a pastoral interpretive lens to depict and understand the psychosocial dynamics resulting from the hegemonic realities of neoliberal capitalism. More particularly, it is argued that neoliberal capitalism, as the dominant social imaginary, (1) undermines and corrupts Christian (and humanist) myths, narratives, and rituals that maintain and enrich social and communal life, shared relational faith, and interpersonal care; (2) establishes a superior-inferior value system, rooted in the commodification of everyday life, that introduces an ontological falsehood in individuals’ psyches and relationships; (3) leads to a corresponding internalization of foreignness; and (4) narrows the public and political space of appearances.
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Notes
Briefly, pastoral, as an interpretive lens, refers to the theological notions of care, conscience, and community as frameworks for understanding specific human struggles and other factors that contribute to human suffering. Pastoral analysis that aims toward care of the polis, then, is a necessary religious response to a struggling and suffering body politic.
I have placed the term “rational” in quotes to suggest the underlying illusion that the so-called market or those involved in the market make rational, objective decisions. Any cursory reading of the rises and falls of the stock market reveals that greed, fear, hubris, anxiety, anger, and fantasy play a large role in the making of “rational” decisions. I would add here that the notion of “rational” vis-à-vis capitalism is a kind of rationalism that is associated with the advancement of each individual’s self-interest. This is decidedly different from a rationalism associated with making decisions with regard to the interests and needs of others (Gergen 1994).
Hendricks (2011) points out that John Maynard Keynes dismantled this claim, indicating that “supply cannot be counted on to create its own demand” (p. 152).
Harvey (2005) argues that the power and influence of neoliberal ideas came to fruition in the 1970s/1980s with the proliferation of conservative think tanks as well as the elections of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. See also Dumenil and Levy (2013) and Klein (2007) on the rise and influence of neoliberalism and the process of globalization through varied means of force and coercion by Western powers.
Soft cruelty refers to public instances of cruelty or ruthlessness that take the form of deprivation, as opposed to types of cruelty that involve physical violence and subjugation.
It is important to note that the patriarchal system itself is, in part, responsible for the marginalization of women and children. Nevertheless, the command to care for them involves a recognition of their inherent value as persons.
I am using ontic inferiority to point to the tendency of both colonizer and colonized to hold the belief in the superiority of the colonizer and the inferiority of the colonized as if it is an existential or ontological fact instead of a socially constructed fiction.
In Hannah Arendt’s (1958) political philosophy, the space of appearances involves individuals acting cooperatively in the public realm, expressing and acting on their unique subjectivities as persons. The health of the space of appearances within a given society depends on the use of shared power. The presence of coercion, force, or violence signals a collapse or attenuation of this space.
National Poverty Center, “Poverty in the United States: Frequently Asked Questions,” The University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, http://npc.umich.edu/poverty/, Accessed 26 Oct. 2013.
LWF Tenth Assembly, “Message from the Tenth Assembly,” The Lutheran World Federation Tenth Assembly, http://www.lwf-assembly2003.org/lwf-assembly/htdocs/PDFs/LWF_Assembly_Message-EN.pdf. Accessed 30 July 2013.
Reformed Church in America, http://www.rca.org/page.aspx?pid=2985. Accessed 30 July 2013.
Christ against culture need not be confined simply to those who identify themselves as Christians. God’s grace works through and is available to all. So we might consider other forms of resistance to neoliberal capitalism as manifestations of God’s grace in the realization of more life-giving and life-enhancing models of economic organizing. For example, consider Mondragon Company, a Spanish multinational corporation that is run by its workers: “Through an annual general assembly the workers choose and employ a managing director and retain the power to make all the basic decisions of the enterprise (what, how and where to produce and what to do with the profits)” (Wolff and Resnick 2012). While operating within the dominant social imaginary of neoliberal capitalism, this large company has relied on humanistic and democratic principles to organize its company.
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LaMothe, R. The Colonizing Realities of Neoliberal Capitalism. Pastoral Psychol 65, 23–40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-015-0660-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-015-0660-6