One man, George Monbiot, comes into a bare, high-ceilinged castle-like room and talks. What struck me was his talk could be so captivating with importance. And if he’s right about things, which it seems to me he is, you and I have been insidiously duped.
Artistic creations, insightful photos, applicable clips, all rich in history, metaphor and beauty, complement Monbiot’s words and helped me understand this core reality: Neoliberalism, the foundational precept of our times, is capitalism illicitly wedded to democracy in a no-win for me, my family and my community.
What? Neo = New.
Liberalism = care for others.
Right?
But, ironically, though these two words together might sound good, in application the term is a betrayal. The word, though not the concept, is at least 100 years old and instead of supporting, it discounts the humanity and rights of ordinary citizens. But before I go further …
Who is the man in the empty room?
George Monbiot is promoted as “a world-renowned environmental activist, best-selling author of over a dozen books, and self-described professional troublemaker.” He is an Englishman famous as an investigative journalist and writer for a weekly column in The Guardian. He has a degree in zoology from Oxford and has won literary prizes, including an award from Nelson Mandela for environmental achievement and the 2022 Orwell Prize.
His collaborator is Peter Hutchison, an American filmmaker, activist, author and educator. With Monbiot, he co-authored the book, “The Invisible Doctrine: the Secret History of Neoliberalism,” upon which this film is based.
What’s their big message?
Ironically, they assert that neoliberalism, the foundational ideology behind our operational democracy, is the antithesis of democracy and contributes to social and environmental instability, which eventually, when unchecked, leads to an ultimate demise.
Liberalism, in the neoliberalism context, means freedom.
Freedom from regulation – to poison rivers.
Freedom from unions – to pay whatever, to lay off whenever.
Freedom to restrict people (not business), during a crisis – The Patriot Act.
Basically, neoliberalism is a construct that allows corporations to do what they want.
The land and the people are incidentals.
How does Neoliberalism affect us personally?
Outcome is the standard for success. Competition is championed in all areas of endeavor. Conversely, Monbiot and Hutchison believe that competition can shred social cohesion and justify inequality, creating an I’m Better Than You mentality. Supremacist attitudes ascend and society devolves into what my dad described as his business experience: a dog eats dog world.
Neoliberalism in a nutshell
The analogy in the film that helped me understand the concept of neoliberalism the best was the example on Madeira, a little island west of Morrocco. Around 1425 entrepreneurs came in and harnessed the population to work for them. They had them clear the island to plant sugar and then had them harvest all the trees to run the ovens needed to produce the sugar for export.
When all the trees were gone, by the 1500s, the business left to commandeer another island, another place, and so on. The sugar industry gained wealth, but left poverty, misery, and environmental devastation in its wake.
Scant attention was given to the workers, the now-barren land or the ethics of the enterprise. Only the profits devolving to the corporation and its shareholders mattered. Business interests had usurped the sustainability of the land and its people. Monbiot explained that this is an example of neoliberalism.
The duping …
This is the important reason to see this film. Neoliberalist thought tells us we’re self-centered and greedy. I believed it and that’s where I feel duped. Monbiot gives a contrary perspective with convincing scientific examples that show us we’re empathetic. He explains that we wouldn’t have survived if we did not cooperate. We flourish when people work together.
It’s other interests that tell us to compete until we are run ragged and our environment is poisoned and depleted. Our government channels taxes from things that could sustain us, like universal healthcare, pre-k education and family farms, into still greater fighter planes and bombs used on those who can’t defend themselves.
“The Invisible Doctrine: the Secret History of Neoliberalism (and how it came to control your life)” is a thought-provoking criticism of the machinations of a capitalistic democracy. The focus and hope of the film is that there is another way. That, my friends, is why it’s mandatory to see.
Credits
Directors: Peter D. Hutchison and Lucas Sabean
Writers: Peter D. Hutchison and George Monbiot
Featured Subject: George Monbiot
Producers: Peter D. Hutchison and Lucas Sabean
Featuring music by Peter Gabriel
Composer: Landon Knoblock
Cinematographer: Anton Jeffes
Editor: Lucas Sabean
Official Website: https://theinvisibledoctrine.com/
Release: May 4, 2025 at DocLands, Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael, CA
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