ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there are two essential aspects of the activity of the political. The first is the gregarious and sociable nature of human beings, and the second is the collective deliberation that must precede decision-making in such communities. Neoliberalism in the last four decades is a form of anti-politics as it negates these two essential aspects of the political. First, it locks individuals into what are referred to as silos of solitude, and second, it eliminates the essential element of deliberative decision-making to replace it with the supposed certainties of market forces. The chapter in its second half goes on to argue that the first two decades of the 21st century are characterised by a conjuncture composed of five discrete circumstances: the global war on terror beginning in 2001, the 2007–08 global financial crisis, the austerity measures imposed in the decade of the 2010s on already austere working classes as a fallout of the financial crisis, the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. This contemporary conjuncture signals the impossibility of continuing with the neoliberal political orthodoxy and the need to envision a distinct world order anew. The chapter argues that political theory is incapable and not fit for purpose to envision such a new world order and reflects on what could set it right.
