Salutary Histrionics for the Perplexed
This was written before I found fault with the Mad Arab with his Irish up and the Chinese Nostradamus, but it still holds up. Applebaum’s Autocracy, Inc. is not just a critique of global neoliberalism; it’s a diagnosis of what neoliberalism unintentionally cleared the runway for. In other words, autocracy in her telling is not the opposite of neoliberal globalization—it’s the mutation that grows inside its operating environment. Autocracy is not merely a reaction to neoliberalism, but what came in the wake of it. 🌐 1. Neoliberalism created the infrastructure Autocracy, Inc. exploits. Applebaum describes a world where authoritarian actors collaborate across borders through: - offshore finance - private wealth management - elite transnational networks - deregulated information channels - weak or captured institutions All of these are products of the neoliberal order, not its negation. Neoliberalism’s core commitments—capital mob...