In the meantime, we’ll see plenty of monstrosities. Currently onstage are grotesque efforts to pulverize the wreckage of one of the more absurd pieces of the neoliberal camouflage’s prior ‘narrative’ — Biden as ‘sharp-as-tack’ etc. etc., ad nauseum.
This fragile, yet operationally important, part of the narrative was spectacularly disassembled in last year’s debate. But large chunks of its wreckage were still lying around. Such obvious evidence of very consequential trickery might interfere with the formation of the neo-narrative, a process which requires a relatively clean landscape. So, the wreckage itself had to be hit hard with a ‘news-cycle counter-narrative’ that, while temporarily re-drawing attention to the trickery, ultimately results in confusion, fatigue, trivialization, and boredom (e.g., ‘just another media-on-media story’). At that point, likely to be soon, the remaining bits are small enough to stuff down the memory hole.
Such public proactivity about discarded narratives seems unusual. Most parts of the old narrative that didn’t inherently concern economic matters — DEI, ESG and the other woke stuff — were simply abandoned, along with their usefully idiotic proponents. Some of these foot soldiers continue the various ‘fights’ (which were always purely camouflage) at a performative level in the daily political circus, but without relevance or real support they’ll all just fade away. Other parts of the old narrative that have continuing economic potential, especially those related to lucrative climate change initiatives, are being quietly re-worked and will be blended into the future neo-narrative. The ongoing economic rents secured under the old narrative are also being quietly solidified and expanded in the old-fashioned, behind-the-scenes neoliberal way, which includes slipping wonky technical provisions into major legislation, as was recently attempted to give carbon pipelines federal eminent domain (that one got caught — how many get through?).
The Biden ‘sharp-as-tack’ narrative, however, was too wrecked to repair yet too dangerous to abandon. The story could expose the full extent and mechanisms of neoliberal political control; its surviving principal actors, with little left to lose and vengeful motives, could confirm the truth in headline-grabbing ways. Like an advanced fighter jet downed behind enemy lines, its own side, if ruthless enough, will immediately send airstrikes to destroy it — and take out the surviving pilots, too.
As noted, a grotesque performance. But it does highlight something which I think might be important — the functionaries who create and maintain the neoliberal camouflage (call them, the ‘Narrativators’) are (1) painfully aware of their recent failures, and (2) likely to have learned, and are still learning, a lot. I imagine that in other situations where a ‘narrative’ was central to economic and political control, the product was continuously improved. I’m sure early Soviet apparatchiks made rookie mistakes, too. In their case, the prospect of literally being shot likely concentrated remaining minds wonderfully, and the product improved quite quickly. Our current crew of Narrativators don’t face such downsides, but continued employment (even wealth, to a point) and social inclusion (even status, of a sort) are sufficient incentives. Their neoliberal bosses can be vindictive, certainly, but also relatively generous with the loot, at least when there’s plenty to share.
All these monstrosities — the political circus acts of abandoned Woke Last Ditchers, the ultra-cringey own-goal counter-narratives, the sneaky tinkering with bits and pieces of previously established economic rent rackets — are not really important. It’s mostly just noise as the old narrative is dying, and probably doesn’t contain much information about what the neo-narrative will look like, for two reasons: (1) the Narrativators are quick learners and highly motivated; old mistakes will not be repeated, and (2) more importantly, the narrative tools available to them might be undergoing a quantum change — I’m talking about AI, of course.
Like everyone else, it is clear to me that AI LLM, graphics, interactivity etc. will be transformative, but it isn’t clear at all what the overall result will exactly look like. You can be sure that the Narrativators are paying close — as in, professional, expert, motivated — attention and may even be participating in developments. I can imagine various ways that AI tools will be central to the neo-narrative:
- Most obviously, in terms of graphics, communications, LLM and other digital mass media power. This might be in the form of a ‘hyper-charged’ version of what was working for the old narrative. But maybe something completely new will arise.
- More indirectly, AI developments and trajectories will likely be (already are?) a primary component of the neo-narrative’s ‘vision’ for a better future. Original neoliberalism plausibly promised that unleashed private markets would deliver a ‘rising tide lifting all boats’. Original narrative neoliberalism promised (somewhat less plausibly) moral perfection, purification where needed, and happiness — the latter for some achieved by ‘owning nothing’ and for most others by receiving an improved slice of the bread/circus pie. Neo-narrative neoliberalism might be able to convincingly promise the whole lot via AI utopian visions — the Abundance story looks exactly that.
- There’s much synergy and overlap between AI development for real operational profit and its potential for narrative-driven rent extraction. Neoliberal smart money is undoubtedly betting on both. Hence, the Narrativators won’t just be another group utilizing the tools — their narrative skills and capabilities might be somewhat central to parts of the sector’s business strategy itself. They’ll be in the thick of it from the start. The 10-year moratorium on AI regulation in the House bill might be related to this mix.
No doubt there is, and will be, much more. A sense of fear and loathing is not absent. To paraphrase that old movie trope, “It’s all very interesting. Too interesting.”