Neoliberalism can, in its cosmology, seem to recognise complexity, but this may be a delusion as it also seems to involve a politics of enforced corporate dominance, which is incompatible with complexity. It generally is inferior, as an approach to ecological catastrophe, to what I’ve called climate generosity.
Complexity
So first of all, let us list some of the points recognised by a complexity based cosmology.
- 1) Flux
- 2) Multiple interactions
- 3) So complicated that knowledge is distributed, a simplification and uncertain.
- 4) Small changes make large differences. Tippling points can change the system.
- 5) Limited predictability in human terms.
- 6) Systems (as categorised by humans) intermesh, and cannot be isolated from one another
- 7) Systems display both emergent order and emergent maladaptation from other points of view.
- 8) Resilience requires diversity of response, biodiversity is good etc.
- 9) Planning enforced by humans of limited understanding may not generate the results intended and is probably harmful.
Neoliberalism and Complexity
Neoliberalism appears to recognise a complex cosmos. It recognises uncertain and distributed knowledge but tries to reduce all knowledge to the price system, even if the price system can only cover things that are for sale, and is distorted by corporations teaming up to profiteer or remove new competitors, internal sales, transfer pricing, advertising, hype and propaganda, below cost competitive discounting to drive out competitors and so on. It pretends that local members of a corporation can always react to local knowledge rather than to top-down direction.
It recognises that centralised planning is problematic, but supports corporate planning, and plans to stop any ‘unlimited democratic’ control to restrain corporate action for the general good. It often appears to claim the ecological system is controllable, linear, isolated and can be repaired or replaced. It suppresses the search for unintended consequences. This will likely prevent desired futures from emerging.
It does not recognise that systems overlap and influence each other. The corporate economy is supposed to dominate ecologies rather than operate within ecologies. Contemporary neoliberalism may well have risen to powerful as a tool to overcome ecological movements, and demands for lower and less harmful pollution and less destructive forms of extraction, and hence challenges to corporate operations. Oil companies ignored their own research showing that burning fossil fuels promoted climate change, and promoting increased usage. Potential tipping points to ecological upheaval are ignored. Neoliberal political parties seem largely hostile to environmentalism, except when it can delay renewables. Property is ripped out of its connective social and ecological background of existence, to make it restricted.
Neoliberalism does not value diversity. It supports corporate organisation and the heteronormative nuclear family operating within the market. It does not support varied families, community action, non-market activity, or non-market power structures. While neoliberalism recognises ‘spontaneous order,’ it generally supports and enforces market based orders, rather than recognise flux.
Complexity and climate generosity
On the other hand generosity is happy with flux and multiple interactions. It assumes local people have the best knowledge but may need help to get going. It hopes that small local actions can lead to system change, it does not have to enforce change. It also recognises that the system may be shifting into maladaption for social organisation and that is an incentive to support emergent local resilience and diverse responses. Generosity can easily assume human and ecological interaction, and even the ‘ecology’s generosity’ which requires a generous rather than exploitative response, and does not require ecologies to be submissive to human needs. It does not have to engage in forceful planning, as its basis is to help people do things they want to do to help themselves.
Summary
Despite indications neoliberalism might be compatible with complexity, its political attempts to reduce everything to capitalism undermines any potential connections, and undermines its ability to deal with the climate change and eco-upheaval it generates. It will continue to largely ignore the problems and postpone action.
Climate generosity, seems not only an effective non-delay tactic, but one which is more compatible with the apparent complex nature of the world.
Tags: climate change, complexity, ecology, economics, generosity, neoliberalism
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