New polemic essay: Undead Ideologies: Necro-Neoliberalism, Necro-Keynesianism and the Radical Imagination

Zombies take over Wall Street - image from the Huffington Post

My new polemic essay, titled “Undead Ideologies: Necro-Neoliberalism, Necro-Keynesianism and the Radical Imagination” is now posted at Znet (http://www.zcommunications.org/undead-ideologies-necro-neoliberalism-necro-keynesianism-and-the-radical-imagination-by-max-haiven).  Here is the introductory paragraph:

The 2008 financial crisis has left us bereft of any meaningful mainstream political imagination. Indeed, the political spectrum today appears like a preposterous zombie film, with undead ideologies shambling across the airwaves and internet hungry for brains and tenaciously clinging to this mortal coil, if not their actual life or dynamism. Henry Giroux, for one, has called ours a moment of “zombie politics and culture,” equally devoid of imaginative animation and suffused with a morbid callousness that simply lets the vulnerable die. While the crisis has appeared to restage the 20^th century debate between Neoliberalism and Keynesianism, both have been largely hollowed of their idealism and energizing aspirations. No one actually believes in their promise to make life better or fix our problems. We are left with undead ideologies that fundamentally stifle and constrain the political imagination we so desperately need.

**Since posting this I’ve become aware that the Turbulence Collective has already published a very complementary article on similar themes, including the term “zombie liberalism.”  Check them out: http://turbulence.org.uk/turbulence-5/life-in-limbo/