Invisible Doctrine

The Secret History of Neoliberalism

By: George Monbiot, Peter Hutchison

Narrated by: George Monbiot

A sharp, fiercely argued takedown of neoliberalism that not only defines this slippery concept but connects it to the climate crisis, poverty, and fascism—and shows us how to fight back.

Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of our time. It shapes us in countless ways, yet most of us struggle to articulate what it is. Worse, we have been persuaded to accept this extreme creed as a kind of natural law. In Invisible Doctrine, journalist George Monbiot and filmmaker Peter Hutchison shatter this myth. They show how a fringe philosophy in the 1930s—championing competition as the defining feature of humankind—was systematically hijacked by a group of wealthy elites, determined to guard their fortunes and power. Think tanks, corporations, the media, university departments and politicians were all deployed to promote the idea that people are consumers, rather than citizens.

One of the most pernicious effects has been to make our various crises—from climate disasters to economic crashes, from the degradation of public services to rampant child poverty—seem unrelated. In fact, they have all been exacerbated by the “invisible doctrine,” which subordinates democracy to the power of money. Monbiot and Hutchison connect the dots—and trace a direct line from neoliberalism to fascism, which preys on people’s hopelessness and desperation.

Speaking out against the fairy tale of capitalism and populist conspiracy theories, Monbiot and Hutchison lay the groundwork for a new politics, one based on truly participatory democracy and “private sufficiency, public luxury”: an inspiring vision that could help bring the neoliberal era to an end.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison (P)2024 Allen Lane

Critic reviews

“Incisive, illuminating, eye-opening—an unsparing anatomy of the great ideological beast stalking our times, often whispered about and yet never so clearly in view.”—David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth

“If you want to know how neoliberals spread the dangerous lie that their ideas were new, liberal, and commonsensical, Invisible Doctrine is everything you need. Monbiot and Hutchison have written the definitive short history of the neoliberal confidence trick.”—Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and author of Adults in the Room

“A powerful, punchy exposé of the invisible powers that block the road to human and planetary well-being—a must-read for everyone who seeks a better alternative to the crises that threaten to overwhelm us.”—Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level

Great narration. couple of audio issues, but I couldn't tell if they were on my device or in the recording.

I agree with virtually everything in this book, but it reads like assertation without convincing evidence for its claims. It seems to assume an audience that already agrees, pays little attention to the actual history of neoliberalism, fails to continue to differentiate neoliberalism from late stage capitalism and just plain capitalism, and I doubt you would find it convincing if you came to it with any shred of conflicting point of view. I found it lazy; I can't discern any purpose for it other than preaching to the choir.
You can't just assume it's a given fact that capitalism bad - though you could make a stronger argument for that that can be found here. This book makes no attempt to illuminate capitalism's potentially redeeming qualities, or its possibilities as an economic tool when not an overarching ideology.
I had hoped this book could plot the steps at which neoliberalism tipped the balance into the inherent dangers of capitalism, but alas it takes the point of view that capitalism is fundamentally doomed and that neoliberalism simply accelerated its natural progression, which strikes me as highly over-simplified. It reads like a hopeless university diatribe on anti-capitalism rather than an exhaustive history of the incremental advance of neoliberalism that I had hoped.