Neoliberalism – a business-backed ideology committed to cutting taxes, busting trade unions, gutting government regulations, and privatizing public services – is the dominant political and economic philosophy of our time. Yet despite capturing both major parties and shaping and controlling virtually every aspect of our lives, it’s a term that’s rarely mentioned in mainstream media and politics, let alone explained or scrutinized.
The Invisible Doctrine, featuring bestselling author and environmental activist George Monbiot, sets out to change that. Directed by acclaimed filmmakers Peter Hutchison and Lucas Sabean, the film combines Monbiot’s well-known clarity and conviction with striking visuals and infographics to provide a masterclass in what neoliberalism is, where it came from, who it benefits, and why it matters.
In the film, Monbiot tells the story of neoliberalism’s rise to dominance – from an obscure pro-capitalist philosophy in the 1930s to a full-blown political project bent on rolling back hard-won checks on corporate power in the 1970s to its ultimate embrace at the highest centers of power in the 1980s up to today.
Placing special emphasis on the stories that have been told via business-funded think tanks, dark-money conduits, and corporate media outlets to sell neoliberal policies, Monbiot explodes the core neoliberal claim that unregulated corporate capitalism is synonymous with freedom and democracy.
Far from enhancing freedom and democracy, he argues, neoliberalism’s commitment to corporate capitalism has waged systematic war on both – subordinating freedom to unaccountable concentrations of private power, and undermining democracy by dismantling reforms designed to level the playing field for ordinary Americans.
Along the way, Monbiot surveys neoliberal policies that have been implemented to impose austerity, privatize public resources, financialize the economy, deindustrialize our manufacturing base, and undermine social solidarity movements. Then he chronicles the destruction these policies have left in their wake: from wage stagnation, a dying middle class, rising rates of child poverty, Gilded-Age levels of income inequality, and a plutocratic political system, to endless wars, catastrophic environmental threats, and the kinds of widespread social alienation and despair that are the lifeblood of authoritarianism and fascism.
In the end, Monbiot calls for a truly participatory democratic political system to repair the damage neoliberalism has done – a system that appeals to us as active citizens rather than consumers and places a premium on the shared heritage of our social, political, and environmental commons. Only when we have a democratic society that values and respects what we hold in common, he argues, will we stand a chance of liberating ourselves from the vicious spiral of isolation, alienation, and environmental destruction that neoliberalism simultaneously breeds and feeds on.
The Invisible Doctrine is a vital resource for courses that explore dominant ideologies, political economy, corporate power, globalization, labor history, economic inequality, consumerism, environmental issues, the climate crisis, public relations and propaganda, social alienation, and the rise of authoritarianism and fascism.