Big Society is a big load posted by Richard Seymour

That this government should extend the logic of the market to charity is no surprise, and is congruent with their wider agenda of attacking the institutions that underpin social solidarity such as welfare and the NHS. Part of this goes back to the influence of Marvin Olavsky and the doctrine of "compassionate conservatism". Olavsky's role in moulding George W Bush's early public discourse is well known. Bush spoke of raising "armies of compassion" to unleash "an outpouring of giving" through a structure of incentives and neighbourhood initiatives supporting social entrepreneurs. The government had to "get out of the way" to allow people to give; taxes and public spending were no answer to social problems; only the transformative personal encounter between the social entrepreneur and the needful victim constituted genuine compassion.

Labels: austerity, big society, capitalist crisis, david cameron, neoliberalism, public spending, the meaning of david cameron, tories