Promising “democracy, development, free markets, and free trade” to the world in the wake of 9/11, the U.S. administration unwittingly made the case that market fundamentalism contradicts democracy.
| This post is part of a reading series on Democracy Incorporated by Sheldon S. Wolin. To quickly access all chapters, please click here. Disclaimer: This chapter summary is personal work and an invitation to read the book itself for a detailed view of all the author’s ideas. |
To Sheldon Wolin, The National Security Strategy of the United States of September 9, 2002 (hereafter NSS)1 represented “the clearest formulation of the administration’s understanding of the mission of Superpower and of its totalizing reach.” There is no doubt that in the minds of its authors, this totalizing reach only expressed the positive outcome of a new era, where “democracy, development, free markets, and free trade” would be the conjuring forces toward a brighter and safer future. The shady notion of “free markets” appears as the core solution to all of humanity’s ailments.
A common misconception about utopian thinking is to consider that it is disconnected from the trivialities of power. Though some utopists will acknowledge that what they describe is fantasy and only meant to serve as a source of inspiration, others consider their creation a genuine project. To them, the univocity of their solution is the precise reason why no one could reasonably object to its realization. If there is a unified formula for collective happiness ever after, why dispense the world from its implementation?
Sheldon Wolin explains: “There have been three recurrent elements or prerequisites in many visions of utopia. One is that the founders of utopia possess some form of knowledge, some unquestionable truth, concerning what the right order of society should be, what should be the proper arrangement of its major institutions. The second element is that utopians must imagine it possible to possess the powers capable of establishing and realizing the utopian order. The third element is the opportunity of bringing utopia into existence and the skill in seizing and exploiting that moment. The NSS document embodies the first element, the blueprint, and suggests the second, the powers that seem to put utopia within reach. The third element, opportunity, was concocted in the preemptive war against Iraq.”
Footnotes
- The document is accessible online at: https://nssarchive.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2002.pdf