The Greek Gods of Neoliberalism

The Neoliberal Imagination #1

The Neoliberal Imagination

One of the many things I’ve wanted to do on this publication is have an essay series on ‘The Neoliberal Imagination’, which more or less refers to some of the dominant ideologies of the fragmented, paranoid, techno-centric cultural landscape that permeates American/European life. So, this small essay is part of a larger (hopefully) series of trying to explore and uncover this ‘social imaginary’, which will be further abbreviated as ‘NLI’ (or Neoliberalism as NL, meaning essentially the same thing).

Mythical Roles

‘Roles’ are an essential part of social life; perhaps, even the most essential part of social life, and might be seen as the very maps and mechanisms of ‘meaning relations’ through which social processes occur. Whether these roles are more explicit (boss/worker) or implicit and subtle, our roles are what give shape to our social interactions and their flows.

There is perhaps a case to be made too that a ‘culture’ or ‘social field’ has, within its imaginary, a set of archetypal ‘roles’ or ‘mythical roles’ that it draws from (perhaps many different ‘maps’ of these roles).

Which is to say, that different ‘cultures’ have a set of characters and roles which provide a sense of the different possible ways of being within that culture or social field.¹ For example, the ‘Greek Gods’ might be an example of such a mythical lineup of roles; these figures providing a sense of shape for how social life and culture might unfold, what different ‘roles’ might be expected or possible in social life.

However this may or may not actually manifest in cultures, I recently have been thinking that it would be an interesting exercise to outline what I take to be the ‘Greek Gods’ in ‘Neoliberalism’, or the NLI, and for the past few weeks, have been batting around the idea, which is finally compiled in a list below.

Zeus

Starting off: the God of the Gods, the one who calls all the shots, the mastermind, we have the old, wizard like founder or CEO (not just any CEO, but of an extremely huge enterprise). The guy who is always ‘behind the scenes’, yet has ultimate power over everything. Usually some kind of inventor guy, someone who ‘built the company from the ground up’, or whatever it may be, and who spent his entire life energy on these things, which is why he often doesn’t have a strong family life- if one at all- and why everyone views him with God like reverence.

This inventor guy usually is more of the lone maverick type, mysterious, but powerfully imaginative and capable; he has or is able to generate extremely deep interests into certain things, and usually has a nostalgic longing for his childhood, or nature, or of ‘exploring’. As such, NL Zeus is often guided by some kind of boyish sense of ‘wonder’ and ‘creation’, probably leading him back to a sense of nostalgia where he was all alone and could imagine and create a world by himself. Which is to say, he likes being alone and using his imagination. The thing is, for Zeus, this boy-like imagination has been used to literally make the whole world itself; NL Zeus is the master architect of the amusement park that is NL. He found out the rules of the existing regime, fully applied his imagination, and played it like a fiddle, becoming the maker of a whole new world. Through his imagination and hard work, he quite literally became the God of whatever is unfolding.

A more recent example can be seen in ‘Severance’ with the mysterious character of ‘Kier’ who we never meet; in Westworld, ‘Dr. Ford’, the creator of the world, or ‘Wilford’ in Snowpiercer. The actual identity of Zeus is not always revealed, and in most, if not all of these characters, there is a creepy, cult like allegiance to this character, even though we hardly ever meet him. In real life, someone like Warren Buffet, or maybe the Rothschild family, might be a good example: insanely wealthy, more lowkey, extremely powerful, behind the scenes.

The architect of NL and the NLI, his creative (if not psychopathic) imagination is what makes the world all other characters play in. As such, Zeus has a peculiar wisdom and interest in the nature of ‘games’, play, simulation, and what it means to be and have power in the world.

Hera

Hera, the queen of the Greek Gods and Zeus’s wife: the goddess of family, women, childbirth, all things motherly. Zeus, of course, spends all his energy on ‘creating the world’ of capitalism, which he sees as a creation of his imagination (literally making him a sort of God). Which means then that NL Zeus is asexual; all his energy is spent entirely on his ‘life project’, which is some kind of company, experiment, trade, or whatever autistic obsession he has; so, how could he have any time to fall in love?

Not guided by any feminine wisdom, this makes ‘Hera’ hard to pin down in the NLI. What is the divine feminine wisdom in this ‘culture’? At the risk of being too conceptual (there will only be a few like this) the underlying guiding force of wisdom in this world, the force which shapes relationships, life’s, life paths, psyches, marriage, being in the world, and the force which Zeus himself is of course deeply connected to, is, perhaps unsurprisingly, money and finance.

Which is to say: the NLI has eroded feminine wisdom and replaced it with finance; finance and money have become the underlying spirit of NL culture. NL lives are shaped by it almost entirely; it is the spirit which informs the way to think, breathe, relate, embody, exist, commune.

Of course, it could be otherwise. What if, instead of money, the guiding force of wisdom in ones culture was a sense of divine and motherly wisdom, or love, or playfulness?

Apollo

Other than Zeus and Hera, probably the most well known and powerful of the Gods is Apollo; and when it comes to NL, probably cooler than Zeus, since Zeus is so behind the scenes and into his weird obsessions. Apollo is just as skilled as Zeus, but was never able to fully apply himself the way Zeus did, and him not being Zeus is an essential part of his identity. This is probably because Apollo had more friends than Zeus, and actually had a life and acquired social skills and a bit of humanity- instead of seeing everything as a sort of game, or simulation, where he is in control, the way Zeus does. But his humanity is of course his downfall; having spent time being a real person and not some God, Apollo of course simply did not have the time to do what Zeus did. He is often the most skilled, beloved, charismatic individual, but there is something amiss; that something amiss is that he does not have absolute control over the world the way Zeus does, which means, despite all of his immense talent, he always knows that someone else is pulling the strings, and that he is just a character in the game of Zeus.

Which means he always has a bit of a sarcastic, or cool temprament to him, and deep down, he always feels like a bit of a ‘lost cause’. For these reasons he’s always more likeable, relatable and trustworthy. Like Zeus, Apollo doesn’t have a close family, but has a lot of friends: he travelled the world, had many cool adventures, slept with the most beautiful women, learned many things; he is smart, attractive, funny charismatic, always the coolest and most ‘suave’ in the room. The kind of guy everyone wants to be. (No one really wants to be Zeus, unless you are a psychopath). Earlier and more obvious examples include James Bond, but the more recent example, and pinnacle here is Robert Downey Jr, both in real life and on screen, especially in Iron Man. He has all the qualities, but also, at the same time, seems somehow unsatisfied.

Aphrodite

Again, more of a conceptual one, since NL makes no room for any kind of feminine wisdom in its culture. Instead of being agentic and meaningful shapers of culture, women are most often ‘the second sex’, and in a culture based on finance, manipulation, appearance, and other qualities, it is no surprise that women are usually valued for their sexual appeal more than anything else. In these cases, it is especially true that women are often used as objects of allure and attraction for advertisements.

Which is to say: Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love, attraction, etc. within NL is the girl, or guy, you want to have sex with, but never will. The sexual object of all of our imaginations (masculine or feminine) beyond our grasp; of course, this isn’t true for everyone (some people are sexually healthy and satisfied), but creeping at the heart of the social imaginary is this idea that a girl or guy way hotter than you will, for some reason, decide to want to have sex with you. Put differently, Aphrodite might as well be ‘porn’ writ large, the sexual fantasies that we have which will stay as fantasies. Which, of course, is a real, pulpable force in NL which manifests as a frustrated, disturbed social imaginary, a culture not based on sexual liberation but instead deep frustration and longing, and in particular, where these longings are part of the commodification cycle. It is a constant, unhealthy obsession with sex, looks, beauty, etc. but at the same time, a frustration, a never quite grasping of it.

Dionysus

Dionysus, a most beloved character by many mystics; Dionysus, we are told as we learn about the Greek Gods, or at least I was, is ‘the god of wine’. Perhaps a valid reflection of how we consider his true gifts and powers, which are infinitely more interesting, mysterious, and essential- maybe even more essential and powerful than Zeus himself. Dionysus is the capacity to transform, to change, the willingness in Nature to grow and to heal, or as it is often put, the force of ‘chaos’.

This was a hard one. But instead of sticking to concepts and saying that Dionysus is just ‘alcohol’ or ‘alcoholism’ in neoliberalism (which would be a fair reflection, and is indeed exactly how I was taught to think about him), let us consider him as one of his manifestations in popular culture: the xanned out, rich kid failure. The ‘wild child’ who, since his dad, or mom, or brother, or whoever, is either better than him or pays no attention to him, develops some crazy addiction, is unable to develop as a person, becomes the ‘liability’ in the family, never ‘finds himself’ and, this is the key part, ends up doing some absolute bat shit crazy thing. Dionysus is that: the unexpected, the completely new; and Dionysus in NL is this: the batshit crazy.

He is a rich kid who, although rich, is never happy, and pulls some insane stunt in his family, something no one expected, like Forty Quinn in the show ‘You’. Dionysus often jumps from project to project, picking up some new thing or whatever for some time, sometimes even a certain religious obsession, but always falls back into addiction and struggle, never quite ‘finds himself’.

Which is to say, of course, Dionysus in NL is resistant to real transformation. He has no real role, other than to fester and move around meaninglessly. A culture formed by the hand of a CEO/Founder Zeus is one resistant to real change; everyone must instead be apart of the narrative shape at hand, which means the possibility for liberation and community are automatically stifled. NL Dionysus never actually accomplishes transformation, and is one of the most distorted, zombied gods of our time.

In the end, Dionysus usually either dies, commits suicide, or does some absolute bat shit thing like murdering someone- and in this ladder case, whatever he does, he will get away with it because his family is rich. Dionysus will always remain an essential part of human culture, and the way in which he manifests is maybe the most telling of all the gods.

Poseidon

Poseidon; perhaps known to many as the God that is not Zeus. A bit like Apollo, except Apollo was just as skilled as Zeus, and even more likable, but Poseidon is just, well- Poseidon. Deep down he’s a bit frustrated maybe, but like Zeus, he is so absorbed in his autism that he doesn’t really care, and nonetheless keeps to himself.

Of course, in certain cases, Poseidon is actually needed and required, and in these cases, he usually steps up and delivers. He is loyal to his role, and capable. There is nothing really bad at all about Poseidon, but he always seems a bit secondary, the sixth man of the year, brother to the star player.

For these reasons, we might say that Poseidon is a bit like ‘the nature guy’ that’s sometimes presented in NL; he cares, or at least appears to care, more than anything else, about nature, wildlife, and these things, but no one really cares too much about what he says, or wants to go with him on more than two, maybe three, hikes per year. While on the hike, which he initiates, he has his five minutes of fame because of his knowledge of the natural world around them, the plants and the animals, and he is most comfortable in this strange, but ultimately secondary, environment. Everyone will listen for a moment and then get on with their lives, back to the real world, the amusement park that Zeus has constructed.

He is deeply engaged with what he does, but in the end it seems a bit futile, since no one else gives a shit. If we are to extend our imagination, we might even say Poseidon captures our relationship to nature in general- not really caring, finding it interesting maybe at best, a ‘hobby’ that certain people might take and position their personality towards. And if we are to look for a specific character who embodies this, David Attenborough might be a good fit. Everyone would love to have a conversation with him and meet him- but no one would actually want to continue talking to him.

So we might say that being ‘outdoorsy’ is channeling the spirit of Poseidon: it’s cool, I guess, but also, who really gives a shit after about an hour? You’re not Zeus, nor are you making any money watching those birds. Get your bag up David.

Athena

Obvious: who else but the girl boss (in her many possible forms)? Athena slays, has a 9-5 and is able to make decisions as a head-honcho; she dates when she wants, can sleep with whoever she wants, has her own apartment, goes to they gym, lives her life, and feels her groove in all these roles. She is comfortable in her power position, is able to tell men what to do, stops for nobody, not even pedestrians as they cross the road. She has her own tastes-even if sometimes they might be slightly contrived- and has a kick ass job- even if she is a corporate lawyer.

She is doing her thing, proving the world wrong, getting her bag; what else can a girl do in this kind of world? Nobody can blame her. She’s on a roll and doesn’t care what others think of her.

Lots of many different options here, and feel free to insert here whoever feels most appropriate.

Hermes

Hermes, the god of travelling is, of course, the news anchor: particularly the travelling reporter who is willing to travel to ‘the third world’ to speak with the poor people who live there. How daring he is, how worldly! A brave man he is to sit among- nay, crouch in his cargo pants- to those who don’t speak English, and who probably have Malaria, and have no idea what a smoothie tastes like, or how to use ChatGPT. Occasionally, he might even eat the local food with out silverware, or kick one of their ‘footballs’ for a bit.

As a traveler to the many worlds in which the US has caused complete and total disruption of the social, spiritual, cultural, and natural climate, and is completely unwanted, he is there to say: I’m with you. I see you, starving boy or girl, I see that your home is wrecked, and I’m here to take a picture of it. I can’t do anything about it now, but during my Morning special, or during a TED talk, I’ll assign you an exotic name and talk about the tears going down your eyes to draw out an intense emotional reaction to my audience, and maybe they will do something about it- probably not, but maybe. Have hope. Hope is all we have, isn’t it?

Hermes has the gift of gab and the ability to get along with the locals worldwide; in doing so, he is able to commune with the psychic, spiritual forces of our time and, just as importantly, shape our minds as a culture. He’s got his hands, eyes, ears in all kinds of places; he is a spiritual medium of some kind.

Which is to say, Hermes has an especially important role in the NLI, perhaps even the most important one: which is to make sense of the world for us, since the world Zeus has made is his own amusement park, and those in it must be fed illusions in order for it to be sustained. Nobody can actually know what the overall system is like, since the overall system is a labyrinth. Hermes, in this labyrinth, is an essential communer with the architect of the world, and to its many parts. As such, Hermes learns from Zeus what to say and not to say, how to say it, and in doing so, how to shape the minds of Zeus’s culture.

The news anchor is here to tell you about all the bullshit that is happening, what to think, who to be angry at, what opinions to have, and even what to do. He has the essential role of communing between the Gods and the normies, and even the poor people who exist to remind the normies of their place in the world- economic, moral, spiritual, etc.

Demeter

Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. While Demeter, like Dionysus, is one of the most interesting and important Gods/Goddesses, Demeter as she shows up in the NLI is fundamentally resistant towards real change and transformation. In NL, this shows up nowhere more clearly than the insta-activist: someone who is willing to show and reveal herself as a conscious person, but is, at the same time, not really aware or educated enough to know that his or her political activism is mostly restricted to online presentation- which mostly serves her own self image.

Demeter is not entirely at fault. She at least wants a better world, maybe, or probably, but doesn’t really know how to do that, and thinks that posting on IG is the way forward.

She is even critical of Hermes in some of her posts; but only at certain times, and if they ever met in person, Hermes would swoon over his cargo pants and ask about the children in that third world country, how touching the segment was. Perhaps, try and even get a job as an intern there.

This behavior is, of course, an essential part of the ‘harvest’ or the ‘seeds’ of the NLI: there are no new seeds actually planted, it is nearly impossible to see out of the system while inside the system, our own attempts at building a new world are still ways of propping up the existing amusement park that Zeus has made.

Ares

Son of Zeus and Hera, Ares is, of course, the god of war. Ares is known to be ruthless, mean, distasteful in his tactics. Such a spirit can be found in all kinds of places in NL, but the place where it is most seriously and profoundly at play are, of course, in the war machine that is mostly the Military Industrial Complex. Both liberal and conservatives, it is increasingly clear, are willing to commit genocide, dehumanize and gut entire populations, and essentially destroy human life and the earth for its own benefit.

Like with the actual Greek Gods, some of them have mixed feelings towards Ares (some are in favor, some think he is cruel), as is the case with the republican party. Not much more to say here other than ‘Ares’ is in full force in NL.

Artemis

The goddess of the hunt, Artemis channels the spirit of animals, intuition, nature, childbirth, vegetation. And indeed, we see that in NL, Artemis is indeed on a hunt: in particular, on a hunt to speak with the manager. Karen is the pinnacle of all petty frustration in the NLI: she knows, better than anyone else, how to lean into and expand this petty frustration, conjure it in others, and erode any sense of peace which might exist for a brief time in NL arenas. In some cases, Karen might even self-identify as an ‘empath’. She can intuit and sense the spell of all that is annoying, all that is frustrating, but of course, will use that to manipulate the psychic field and get away with pissing off others as much as she can. Knowing all the rules of what is and isn’t acceptable in NL, she is vulture like in her attacks, and very aware of what is possible and acceptable within NL, all that one technically can do. She loves the rules that are there, because she can bend them to make people miserable.

Karen, or Artemis, is no ruler of the underworld but its essential conjurer: Karen can make a hell wherever she goes, she knows exactly how to be the architect of misery onto others; which, being passed onto others, is, for some brief period, no longer in her possession.

Artemis, or Karen, doesn’t have a major role in all this, but certainly thinks she does, and is the most entitled of all of our Gods.

Hephaestus

Hephaestus, is the Greek god “of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes”. There are lots of different directions to take this one, but the most intuitive one, in my own experience, is not necessarily a person or a concept but more than anything else, the ‘ black chevy pick up truck’. Most often, the spirit of Hephaestus is embodied in one of those ‘entrepreneurial contractor’ or handyman type guys, and the symbol of God-like social and economic rise among this class is the black chevy.

Importantly, in NL, Hephaestus is mostly immune to all the bullshit, and somewhat distant: he doesn’t take Hermes seriously which is, for the most part, the defining feature of how you ‘relate’ to NL. He is there doing his work, laughing at the world, having pretty solid relationships and just doing his best to enjoy; his friendships are more robust, he hinds love, he treats his workers with respect, and has strong values. He dropped out of school at a young age to pursuit his more mechanical interests, and made a business for himself. But of course, he is not immune to the NLI and its frustrations and ills, and from time to time, has emotional breakdowns in bursts of extreme anger.

Hades

Ruling over the underworld we have, of course, Hades. Hades is, at the risk of being cliche, the very own psyche or shadow of the NLI which inherently senses and knows its own faults, shortcomings, etc. The deep unconscious mind of NL, which is fundamentally the most powerful force of all, which we might call ‘distraction’ or ‘uneasiness’. It is consumed more than anything else by petty frustration and the sense that the world is ‘not working’, the deep, spiritual frustration which is channeled most intensely by ‘Artemis’ (Karen), who is said to ‘have much in common’ with Hades.

Hades is the creeping sense that underneath, the labyrinth created by Zeus is nothing more than a labyrinth; when in reality, entirely different conditions might be possible. And maybe it is through the power of Hades- God of the Underworld, the shadow, the spirit, the descent into what is deeper, the unconscious- which might be the way out of the labyrinth.

1. Confucianism as well is a great example