If you follow The Break Down, chances are you live in a political system that could be defined as “liberal”. But what does “liberalism” really describe? Is it about democracy? Free markets? The protection of individual freedom? Ask ten different people, and you’re likely to get ten different answers.
According to Chris Shaw, liberalism can be best captured as a system oriented around the “bourgeoisie” or, to put it more simply, the “middle classes”, in which technocratic governance is preferred to the messiness of politics, in which the individual takes precedence over the collective, and in which the protection of markets and private enterprise takes priority.
In Episode 8, Chris breaks down the ways in which liberalism has placed a stranglehold over our political imaginations; why this is so crucial when it comes to the climate crisis; and what a climate politics that takes class seriously would look like.
Further Reading
Alyssa Battistoni, "Freedom and Catastrophe", New Left Review.
Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Penguin, 2016.
Matt Huber, Climate Change as Class War, Verso, 2021.
Geoff Mann, "It Was Not Supposed to End This Way", Boston Review.
Tim Sahay, "Liberal Blindspots", Phenomenal World.
