Neoliberalism and Buddhadhamma

Neoliberalism and Buddhadhamma
I don’t pretend to know anything about economics as such. This is an ethical critique of
Neoliberalism, not an economic one. There has been the success of globalisation and enormous
industrial output, innovation and the lifting of living standards for some. But at what cost? I centre
on some of the destructive consequences. I hope you will be encouraged to do your own research.
There is a lot of literature and YouTube videos. I would be grateful for any corrections and
constructive comments.
The ideology
First of all, it is important to understand that the economic system we have been under for the past
40 years is Neoliberalism, which is a type of free-market capitalism and that Neoliberalism is an
ideology – a view of the human condition and a consequent set of principles that go to form a
policy and a belief it will bring a bright future towards which everyone is heading. Consider the
other secular ideologies of the last century – Communism and National Socialism.
The problem with ideologies is that they are mental constructs, not grounded in present moment
reality. They distort the present to fit the future goal. So an ideology at its very conception, has ‘the
seeds of its own destruction’ (Ironically, Karl Marx said this of Capitalism.) At some point, there is
bound to be such a dis-location that the system begins to falter and collapse. That has been
happening to Neoliberalism, especially from the economic collapse of 2008.
The Buddha did not fashion a Buddhism, a Buddhist ideology. There is no Shangri la we are
heading towards. Nibbana is not a place! Such conceptual thinking was not developed anyway in a
pre-literate culture. He taught the principles and ethics to liberate ourselves from
unsatisfactoriness and to create a harmonious society. The Dhamma, the Teaching, is grounded on
the understanding of the human realm as Samsara, where acquisitiveness, aversion and delusion
will always be at play. And that our struggle will be to act from the motivations of love,
compassion, joy and peacefulness. The Buddha himself was liberated from dukkha1, living in the
inner freedom of Nibbana within the world of Samsara.
Basic Attitude – Me versus everyone else
At the centre of Neo-liberalism is the Market. This has to be given free reign and everyone must
work towards being an active member, an entrepreneur.
The fundamental driving attitude that motives the whole Market is the accumulation of money.
For with money, you can get anything you want. And this promotes a basic attitude of greed and
selfishness.2
Western culture is especially driven by the concept of the individual self, of personal
exceptionalism, celebrated by Margaret Thatcher, ‘there's no such thing as society. There are
individual men and women and there are families.’ (my italics) This self-centredness expresses
itself as ‘I should have what I want when I want it.’ 3
Neoliberalism understands the role of acquisitiveness as the evolutionary force.
In Oliver Stone’s Movie Wall Street, 1987, villain Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) says:
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
1 Dukkha usually translated as unsatisfactoriness, but also suffering, even stress.
2 1 Paul - Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
3 Amazon spent billions to make sure it had the fastest delivery. The faster the gratification, the more people will buy
from you than your competitors. ‘I should have what I want when I want it. And I should have it now!’

Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward
surge of mankind.
It is a form of Social Darwinism that supports ‘unrestricted competition’.
Everything is up for grabs and people do not have any birth right to society’s wealth. You have to
compete for it. The winner takes all.
Darwin actually said:
‘It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most
responsive to change’. That means a creative response to the ever-changing present moment
reality. The first hominids did not have a futuristic ideology leading them to homo sapiens.
The Buddha taught us to be responsive to change in an ethical and moral way; to acknowledge our
inter-dependency; to develop caring relationships.
A society is not just a collection of individuals. The whole is always greater than the sum of the
parts. A society is also a comm-unity.
The role of acquisitiveness.
Acquisitiveness fosters and operates best in a Market of Competitors.
Industrial competition need not be a bad thing. It can lead to greater efficiency and invention.
Even war propels efficiency and invention – WWII produced jet engines, radar and, of course, the
computer! But in war time, people pull together in a common cause within the society against a
common enemy. But for Neoliberalism the common enemy is everyone else! We need to battle
against each other for a share of the market in an Antagonistic Competition. (Hostile Takeovers).
In academia, many scientists will be working on a project. They share their discoveries and at
some point there is a breakthrough, a discovery. They are not motivated by power or money,
though some may covet the Noble Price. They are driven by interest in the scientific investigation
and the possibility of new discovery or invention. It engenders a Collaborative Competition.
However, here rival competition reaches down to every individual. We are to be individual
entrepreneurs who must make their own way against everyone else. And since everyone is in
competition with everyone else, the other is a rival at best, an enemy at worst.
As for employees, they do not have any rights as such but must negotiate with the employer.
Competition between workers determine that those who cost less will get the work. The lower the
pay, the better for the Market since profit will be greater for those who own the assets – the
rentiers. In this way, the ‘Gig economy’ supports the race to the bottom.– ‘a competitive situation
where a company, state, or nation attempts to undercut the competition's prices by sacrificing
quality standards or worker safety (often defying regulation), or reducing labour costs’4.
What those individuals who fail in the market of jobs, the unemployed? They have only
themselves to blame. The Market is open to all. It is up to the individual to work for a piece of it. In
this way, inequality is justified. As little as possible is to be spent on the caring services.
4 The most recent example of this is when P&O Ferries that sail across the Channel sacked 800 workers.
The most recent example of this is when P&O Ferries that sail across the channel sacked 800 workers. The
holding company in Dubai blamed yearly losses of £100 million, yet paid shareholders £270m dividend. They
went on to hire staff at lower wages.

So wealth inevitably accumulates to those who can successfully play the Market. Depending on the
role an individual has in the Market, Wealth is supposed to ‘trickle down’ to everyone. But, in fact,
it overflows upwards.5 6
And what of those who cannot participate in the ‘Market Place’ – the ‘unemployable’, the many
physically and mentally sick and the old. They are draining money from the Market which could be
used for greater profit.
Indeed, all Welfare, any Government or Charitable effort towards the basic physical and material
well-being of people in need (those who have failed to be successful entrepreneurs), will
undermine the entrepreneurial spirit of competition and so should be greatly limited.
What is more, any framework of social care will be at the expense of those who have accumulated
wealth, which is not ‘fair’. So, taxes should be kept at the bare minimum.
The only way, then, to sustain social services is to privatise.
As for Governments, they are not to interfere but let Market Forces have their sway. Therefore,
there should be few regulations if any. However, when businesses and banks collapse (too big to
fail), Governments should come to their aid since a collapse of the Market will harm everyone. We
know how criminally greedy the Banks have been, yet no-one has been prosecuted. Why should
this surprise us. The market supports greed.
Hence this basic attitude of acquisitiveness, of greed, prevents a ‘society of individuals’ from
establishing a sense of community. A Neoliberal Society destroys any commitment to
Commonwealth.
And what of the rich and super rich. They must now guard their accumulated wealth. They donate
heavily to Political Parties who support Neoliberalism. Any sign of opposition such as XR
Rebellion, Green Peace or any organisation working to undermine the destruction of the planet,
must be curtailed and hobbled by legislation and if possible banned. The ‘society of free
individuals’ becomes more repressive as the inequality and injustices of Neoliberalism become
more dominant.7
5 According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report, the world’s richest 1 percent, those with more than
$1 million, own 45.8 percent of the world’s wealth.
6
7 See recent legislation on holding marches - Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was passed on April
26 on restrictions on people’s liberty to protest.

Why is it most people don’t realise that Neoliberalism is an ideology. Most people are not even
familiar with the word. Unlike Communism and National Socialism, it was never publicly and
widely named. It entered as economic operational tool. At first it did lift the economy. But instead
of the profits going back into industry and welfare, it gathered into assets – the process of
financialisation. A simple example is shareholding. A person buys shares to ‘earn’ from the profits
of the company. What goes to the shareholders is, therefore, not re-invested into the company. The
more the profits go to shareholders, the less there is for the workers. Indeed, anyone who owns
something can charge for its use. Hence the rentier capitalism. Rentiers don’t do anything. They
don’t make anything. There are no laws that govern how much they can profit and how much
needs to be put back into the real economy of goods and services.
Why do we so willingly support Neoliberalism? Consumerism has been with us for a long time.
However, now with the enormous growth of industry, goods are cheap enough for many to have
what they want. The advertising industry fools us into thinking that excitement is the same as
happiness. But excitement is indulgence. We are ensnared by greed. The more we buy, the more
we want to buy.
Finally, why is it so difficult for Neoliberalism to respond to climate crisis? As greed works in the
individual so does it work in the corporate. Greed by definition is insatiable. It is a monster that
demands feeding even if it causes its own destruction.(Investigative Eating)
Buddhadhamma
The role of Mindfulness and the abuse of staff.
The rich and powerful who gather at Davos for World Economic Forum that seeks to put the world
aright through Neoliberal measures. The participants, business and political leaders, were
delighted to hear about Mindfulness. Now they could tell stressed employees to undergo a
Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Course. All they needed to do was sit quietly in some corner and
deal with it. Their mental states and illnesses were not the responsibility of the company. They can
now learn to cope.
This wonderful gift that the Buddha gave us to bring all our suffering and discontent to an end is
being used by a world economic system which is fundamentally evil. Evil, the Dhamma teaches, is
that which draws us into the world of sensual pleasure as the only happiness worth seeking. The
world of Mara, the Tempter, of Samsara, the ever-ongoing unsatisfactoriness and suffering that
world of Excitement, of Sensual Pleasure, ultimately offers! Exactly what the Buddha was trying to
free us from! Exactly what the Buddhadhamma, the teaching and the practice is trying to liberate
us from.
Part 3 of the Act gives police forces broad authority to place restrictions on protests and public assembly.
Under previous UK legislation, police must show that a protest may cause "serious public disorder, serious
damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community" before imposing any
restrictions. Under this Act, police forces will be allowed to place restrictions on protests they believe would
otherwise constitute an existing offence of public nuisance, including imposing starting and finishing times
and noise limits, and will be able to consider actions by one individual as "protests" under provisions of the
Act. Protestors disobeying such instructions from the police may be committing a criminal offence. Wikipedia
(my italics)

What then can we do?
A system that is based on greed and antagonistic competition, creating individual entrepreneurs,
each vying with one another to get a share of the wealth, has no duty of care for citizens, especially
those unable to enter the market. It destabilizes social cohesiveness, leading to more crime and
more physical and mental illness
How can we, each of us tiny, almost powerless individuals do?
Consumerism: Be aware that every time we act as consumers, every time we buy something, we
may be supporting the satanic factories of Bangladesh, Cambodia and even China. That we are
putting even more pennies into the treasure chests of the 1%.
How we get rid of our depression and anxiety. Retail therapy, holidays
Developing the attitude of contentment. Not so much to get what we want, but be grateful for what
we have.
The rediscovery of the deep joy of generosity. If we are talking about the joy of
interconnectedness, of friendliness, of a caring society, have you noticed that the joy of caring for
your self lasts a while. You feel good about yourself.
But have you noticed that when you give to others – wealth, time, care, the joy remains much
longer.
"If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having
given, nor would the stain of miserliness overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their
last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared, if there were someone to receive their
gift. But because beings do not know, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they eat without
having given. The stain of miserliness overcomes their minds." Iti 26
The joy in life is immense, but we undermine it because we have barricaded ourselves in this little
castle we call the self. Me!
We must struggle to convert the me to we. Sounds glib. But that’s the way.
And it is when the attitude change that a new way of running the economy will rise. And that way
has to be pragmatic, guided by the attitudes of love, compassion, joy and peace. But I dare we will
end up with yet another ideology. More and more unnecessary suffering. But then that’s samsara.
Excellent articles:
Neoliberalism - the ideology at the root of all our problems. George Monbiot
Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us Paul Verhaeghe
Secularising Buddhism Edit. R Payne How do secular values impact Buddhism in the modern
world? What versions of Buddhism are being transmitted to the West? Is it possible to know
whether an interpretation of the Buddha’s words is correct? See especially, Secular Buddhism in a
Neoliberal Age, Ron Purser
The Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis, Sally Weintrobe shows how the wealthy
nurtured the Concept of Neoliberalism through Right Wing Think Tanks and captured the
Republicans and ultimately the Conservatives in UK and how Neoliberalism has created an
uncaring society.

A Brief History of Neoliberalism, David Harvey, a Marxist philosopher, shows how the
wealth and power moved away from the working classes to the rich and powerful. Many of the
gains of the working classes since WWII have been lost in the Gig Economy.