History has ended and out of the ashes, the winning political ideology is … *drumroll please* … neoliberalism!? This is not the prince that was promised. I’ve been traveling around Central and South America for the better part of four months now and the cities and countries still bear the scar tissue of the grand neoliberal experiment of the last 35 years. But it strikes me that we are left with few alternatives. In fact, according to the Iron Lady herself, There Is No Alternative. That seems rather boring and frankly, not weird enough for this world. Never forget that general relativity was discovered over 200 years after the collective “we” thought Newton had settled the theory of gravity.
While Einstein may have upended the Physics world, I merely seek to expand our view on the end of history as we know it. Fukuyama, in the popular political science book “The End of History and the Last Man” postulated that the world has ideologically reached an end state with liberal democracy. And you know what, I agree with him! Liberal democracy is a pretty great ideal to aspire to. This line popped when I recently re-read his initial essay.
The state that emerges at the end of history is liberal insofar as it recognizes and protects through a system of law man's universal right to freedom, and democratic insofar as it exists only with the consent of the governed.
The neoliberal dream seems to be the poor man’s version of these ideals with most people’s right to freedom really only kicking in on nights and weekends or after retirement (if that). And don’t get me started on consent of the governed in the United States where a full 55% of the country disapprove of the current president (not to mention the approval ratings of the last one).
Three things that I’d change with the status quo
Abolishing private lakes. Yes, I said it. All lakes shores should be public and lakes should have easy access to them. Why is this important? Because there’s nothing more free than jumping into a cold lake on a hot summer day. People need lakes and too often they’re tucked away in private residential communities or surrounded by private residences.
City centers should be public, lease-only land. Most major cities are older than their parent nations and represent a unique, dynamic aspect of human organization. City governments should have the tools at their disposal to alter the character of the city center and make drastic changes as necessary. Many US cities were hollowed out due to the pandemic and the amount of empty office buildings in city centers is over 1 Billion Sq feet. Many cities would love the ability to convert some of this space into housing.
Cities at the center, Nation supporting. Why do most people care what happens at the federal level? In many cases, the city government is far more important but we don’t have a robust culture around city governance. Most people probably can’t name their mayor. The city government should be the one to set rules around the common wedge issues of today (healthcare, education, guns, ??immigration??). This is the most important piece that could reasonably improve the consent of the governed. In many cities, it is conceivable to have either a direct or a once-removed connection to the governing apparatus. If you don’t like it in the city, it’s far more reasonable to move an hour in a particular direction (or 10 hours to get to the nearest major city) than to switch countries.
Look out for a spirited discussion of the Iron Lady’s best qualities when I chat with Vijay about this in our next pod.