ABSTRACT
The power of neoliberal ethics extends beyond the mere material or rational. The arising cultural fantasy of moral capitalism was crucial for covering overcoming the subjective and structural contradictions of neoliberalism. The neoliberalism faced a serious ethical problem—though not the one that is usually immediately imagined. Selfhood is often made possible and strengthened in the pain of having to be moral and the failure to ever fully be so in the midst of an immoral neoliberal order. In taking more responsibility for themselves and ethical responsibility for neoliberal society generally, subjects are in fact reaffirming their identity as capitalist subjects and recapturing their fragile psychic security. Neoliberalism is often described as amoral and unconcerned with any values except for advancing the free market and maximizing profit. The seemingly never-ending and utterly destructive actuality of neoliberalism, coupled with the financial crisis and now the threat of authoritarian populism, has transformed the dreams into what appears to be hollow nightmares.
