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In countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Nicaragua, and, of course, Cuba and Venezuela, we have heard a phrase used by politicians to blame any problem on the absence of state control: “That’s neoliberalism’s fault!” Our editor-at-large, Emmanuel Rincón, dedicates the latest issue of Culture War to analyzing what the left means by the term “neoliberalism.”
For Rincón, it is a “phantom created by the detractors of individual liberties” to refer to the free market practice indirectly. The tools and opportunities it provides to individuals, which in turn do away with the idea of the paternalistic and omnipresent state, threaten politicians who aspire to absolute power.
The free market, feared by totalitarians, is much more than a simple financial or economic transaction between free individuals. In Rincón’s words: “it is a philosophy of life that builds a series of behaviors on which our societies rest.”
By attacking market freedom to force equality of outcome when the self-determination of individuals is “mitigated.” When it takes away from the rich to “distribute” among the poor, it unleashes a series of consequences that end up “fostering state parasitism and discouraging wealth creation.”
“In societies where victimization is not a consolidated pillar, the State will not be able to make use of demagogy to plunder the wealth of the private and kidnap individual liberties in the name of social justice,” Rincón pointed out as the reason collectivist States seek to destroy the free market.
That is the goal of politicians when they use the word “neoliberalism” to convince the masses that “inequalities are harmful, that some have more because others have less, and that society is divided into oppressors and victims.”
This discourse seeks to “bury meritocracy” through the intervention of the State, which, hidden behind these ideas of revanchism, will promise to “equalize” all individuals in the only way possible: by force.
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Emmanuel Rincón is a lawyer, writer, novelist and essayist. He has won several international literary awards. He is Editor-at-large at El American // Emmanuel Rincón es abogado, escritor, novelista y ensayista. Ganador de diversos premios literarios internacionales. Es editor-at-large en El American
Tomás Lugo, journalist and writer. Born in Venezuela and graduated in Social Communication. Has written for international media outlets. Currently living in Colombia // Tomás Lugo, periodista y articulista. Nacido en Venezuela y graduado en Comunicación Social. Ha escrito para medios internacionales. Actualmente reside en Colombia.