{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5","title":"Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5","id":"2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5","uuid":"2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5","title":"Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics","normalized_title":"democracyandotherneoliberalfantasiescommunicativecapitalismandleftpolitics","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":null,"isbns":[],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":229,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Democracy%20and%20Other%20Neoliberal%20Fantasies%20Communicative%20Capitalism%20and%20Left%20Politics","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/2619284f-c364-4de3-bdf4-82f768dbc1c5/search"},"page":{"printed_page":57,"pdf_page":67,"physical_index":67,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"83bc935ba1ac9885c47f8561cd22f491eab137a2c951bb03d2caccefa2302cdf"},"chapter":"Comunicative Capitalism & Left Politics","content":"We can see this closure at work in the slippage between ideas of competition and winning. On the one hand, neoliberal thought emphasizes the necessity of competition. As George points out, competition was Margaret Thatcher's central value and faith in competition was the governing precept of her destruction of the British public sector. George quotes Thatcher, \"It is our job to glory in inequality and see that talents and abilities are given vent and expression for the benefit of us all:'24 On the other hand, even as neoliberalism emphasizes competition, it holds on to the notion that everyone is a winner, a notion dearly at odds with competition because in competition there are winners and losers. Thus, so-caled Third World or \"developing\" countries are not told, \"Sorry, losers, that's the breaks in a global economy:' Rather, they are promised that everyone will win.25 The Global Report on Human Settlements notes: \"Conventional trade theories see increased trade and a liberalized trade regime as purely beneficialj but, as in all chance, there are, in fact, winn.ers and losers. Those participating in the active, growing areas of the world economy or receiving (unreliable) trickle-down efects benefit. Those who do not participate at best receive no benefits, but, in fact, are usually losers, sin.ce capital tends to take flight from their countries or their industries to move to more productive zones, reducing work opportunities and business returns as currencies and wages fall or jobs disappear:'26 Just as the Washington Consensus promised the less-well-of countries that they would al benefit from free trade, so in the United States are workers a.dvised not to worry about the decline in manufacturing and rise of outsourcing. New jobs will be created. With education, workers can be retrained. This same promise that no one wil lose reappears at the level of the local school. Kids today are taught that everyone's a winner. Everyone gets some kind of prize or ribbon just for showing up. In some U.S. districts, schools no longer post grades or rankings out of fear of hurting the self-esteem of those students near the bottom. Perhaps surprisingly, the emphasis on testing inherent in George W Bush's education policy, No Child Left Behind, is not accompanied by a corresponding ranking of students. Instead, schools and teachers are ranked and assessed-but not the students, because everyone is a winner.\n\nF REE TRADE\n\n57","previous_page":56,"next_page":null}