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FIRST LOG: to be completely honest I am still pretty unsure of what this term means in general as well as what it means to me

CLASS DISCUSSION:

- social project/cultural project

- economic and political ideology

- connected to capitalism

- focus on individual social gain, getting rid of community

UPDATED LOG: neoliberalism as a social project is an attempt to remove the state from involvement in personal life. neoliberalism puts all responsibilities of life and finances on individuals. neoliberalism is the "grindset" of working 24/7. Ideal citizen has no needs basically robotic. Gets rid of time for personal enjoyment and relaxation, focus is only on financial gain.

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From the assigned readings as well as class discussions, my thoughts surrounding this topic have strengthened. As this course is an elective for me, I feel like these topics were all things I vaguely knew about, but didn't have a strong understanding of.

From my understanding of these topics, I have found that the word 'welfare' and 'dependency' are both words with a lot of stigma surrounding them. Something that society has struggled with is seeing value in those who do not produce value/income. I think a clear example of this is how we see feel about ourselves when we are not 'productive'. We feel guilty for relaxing and participating in activities that are simply for our own enjoyment. This is rooted in neoliberalism and capitalism. We feel the constant need to be “doing something”, which really just means advancing our careers and doing more to produce more income. When we see people who do not produce income or do not produce enough income, unfortunately there are many labels that immediately get assigned to them like “lazy”. These programs such as welfare are created to support people in situations like this, however the goal is always to “return to society” and get back to being a working person. With this thought process, we lose the individual and only see value in the work they can complete and what they can offer in terms of finances. These programs are created to aid people who cannot work, but when they access the programs created for them, we tend to look poorly upon them. This whole topic and these concepts are a never ending cycle.

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As I have grown older and been able to formulate my own opinions outside of what school and my family think, I noticed that i began to feel more negatively about the military. I never really did any research into this or though critically about why I felt like this. I found this class discussion extremely helpful to expand upon the readings and explain some of the things I was still unsure about.

From a young age, I feel like even in Canada (I feel like the military is a bigger deal/thing in America than here), we are told that the military is good and that individuals who enrol in the military are brave for serving their country. The reality is, is that the government takes advantage of individuals who don't have easy access to healthcare, money, housing, and food by promising that they will receive all these things through the military. In America, these people will typically be marginalized individuals who aren't considered 'real Americans'. It's interesting how the only way that these individuals can prove themselves as Americans is to fight for America and die for America. I find as I am writing this I don't have the words to fully express my thoughts surrounding this topic. However, I know for certain that there is nothing patriotic/honourable/admirable about sacrificing your life for the government/state/country or about killing others.

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When thinking about the idea of 'The Family', the first two things that come to mind for me are: the houses from Edward Scissorhands, and the show Wandavision. Both of these depict (or at first try to depict) a 'perfect' neighbourhood in which everyone has the same (or a similar) house, the same family dynamic, the same race, the same everything. To me it is very "Cookie-cutter".

To me, family abolition/reform just means fighting against this 'sameness'. I think this topic is more of an emotions based topic for me. The word family to me can either mean the people which you are related to by blood, or people who you are not related to, but you feel so comfortable around them as if you have known them your whole life, the same way one typically would with their family. This topic brings to mind the idea of a queer "found family" where queer individuals who aren't accepted by their blood relatives find their family in their friends and partners who show them unconditional love. I think that family abolition/reform to me just means normalizing the fact that different people consider different things to be family. Basically, losing the notion that a family must be a husband/dad, wife/mom, and kids. A family can be anything and anyone. I know that family abolition/reform means different things to different people and we read about as well as discussed these different meanings in class, but this is what it means for me.

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Neoliberalism expects individuals to be superhuman:

constantly working

generating income

no physical needs (eating/sleeping)

no personal needs outside of work

be successful (no matter who you are. this isn't realistic as neoliberalism puts no systems in place to avoid inequality)

if you work hard you will reap the rewards of this work

we know that none of these things are possible. This becomes even more complex when we think about civil society. Neoliberalism expects us to only be concerned with our own individual success and gain, but within the idea of civil society, we see that we are also expected to be responsible for a community and take care of others. How is it possible for individuals to be responsible for their local community and have no involvement from the government or state? If we think of NGO's, we know that they do receive government funding. However, the way in which they do is questionable. In order to receive this funding, they need to prove that there is a specific 'struggle' or 'issue' that needs to be 'fixed', which means that NGOs never truly have the best intention of the community at its core. This is just one example of the complexities that come with neoliberalism and civil society.

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Social reproduction is the continuation of society through the birth of children. Social reproduction is the continuation of the market (creation of new consumers/customers and creation of new employees) through generations.

I find this interesting because even though this is not the intention when people have children, it only highlights how much everything we do is connected to the market and finances. Neoliberalism puts such stress on individuals to generate income nonstop, which means it relies on individuals in order to work. However, neoliberalism doesn't allow us the time needed order to have a family or raise children.

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This concept was one I struggled with more to understand, I don't think I fully understand it still. Here are my thoughts on this:

I understand that the shadow state is where there is someone/something else in power that isn't the government. Something that we typically as citizens do not see and is not brought to light. I think these terms are explanatory as they help us to understand the intricacies of the state. It also helps us to understand that while social reform is possible, it is not easy as there are other working factors which we cannot see.

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I know that social reformation is bound to happen over the passing of time, but it is so hard to imagine life differently than how it is now. I also think some of the things I do imagine are still influenced by/based in neoliberalism. Here are some things I imagine when thinking of this prompt:

Liveable wage provided by government (specified amount of money given to an individual per year to allow them to afford basic cost of living)

Some form of goods trading system (not sure how this would work)

Ability to carry out passions such as creativity without financially suffering

Non selfish welfare state and NGOs

Increase to harm-reduction funding

I think that I cannot fully understand what it means to live a life without neoliberalism and my ideas on what is possible for a new future is clouded by this inability.