Globalization and the Demolition of Society

Since the 1980s, advocates of "free market" forces and unrestrained individualism have succeeded in making their views dominant worldwide. In this timely, startlingly honest, wide-ranging, and profound book, Dennis Loo shows that free market fundamentalism - also known as neoliberalism - makes us not more secure or prosperous: it tears the social fabric and undermines security, leading inevitably to disasters on the individual, regional, and global levels. Neoliberalism is based on the mantra that market forces should run everything. It aims to eliminate job and income security, the social safety net (including welfare and other social guarantees), unions, pensions, public services, and the governmental regulation of corporations. It consequently undermines the basis for people to voluntarily cooperate with authority as almost everyone is increasingly left by themselves to face gargantuan private interests, with governmental and corporate authority ever more indifferent to the public's welfare. Loo points out that given this trend, the government must rely on ever increasing secrecy, deception, surveillance, fear and force in order to keep people in line, no matter which political party is in power. This is the underlying reason why the Democratic and Republican Parties are less and less distinguishable from each other, and why both parties have been moving politically to the Right. Loo tells this story of two worlds in contention - those who uphold private interest vs. those who defend the public interest - by drawing from everyday life to illustrate and bring alive what might otherwise seem to be disconnected and disparate disturbing developments. He conveys complex topics and questions with remarkable clarity, subtlety, and sophistication. Even after reading only one chapter, you will come away from Globalization and the Demolition of Society looking at the world differently. This book calls for the kind of grassroots mass movements that Arab Spring and its inspired domestic equivalent, the Occupy Movement, exemplify. Loo skillfully weaves together multiple disciplines (sociology, history, political science, criminology, law, economics, and philosophy) and illustrates them with examples from everyday life. He paints a vivid picture of the perils and possibilities that humanity confronts at this juncture of history.