Idioms of Freedom

• In Event: Rethinking Neoliberalism: Concepts and Critiques

Abstract

This paper traces the multiple political movements and ideologies which implicitly depend upon debt while claiming to escape it. The language of liberation rhetorically jettisons the commitments which fundamentally underpin politics. Within anti-hierarchical reorientations that position solidarity as vital and central – e.g., among the working class, for Marxism; among women, for 20th century feminism – solidarity ultimately functions only as a stepping-stone to the development of true freedom (the “free development” of the worker; the liberation of women). Cosmopolitanism and civil rights operate similarly. Seen as alternatives to the excesses of the nation-state, both eventually transform into celebrations of individualist freedom above all else. Against them, this paper emphasizes embeddedness and indigeneity, modalities of relationships fundamentally dependent upon being indebted. These constitute debts which (can) promote reinforcement, interconnection, and prospering.

Author

• Kennan Ferguson, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee