Neoliberals are still seen as economists of rationalist persuasion immersed in mathematics, uninterested in incalculable fields of culture and religion, who propose axiomatic proofs of the necessity of state withdrawal, inspired by enlightenment figures like physiocrats or Adam Smith. In this laissez faire image, like a natural law, “free market” left to its own devices creates harmony. Hence, a typical economist argues for minimal state and (if there is room for “religion”) protestant ethics, while neoliberalism is a factor of rationalization.

Although neoliberalism has certainly conditioned reemergence of nineteenth century social ills, this image is far from truthful. It’s overlooked that neoliberalism was created as a critique of rationalized culture. Neoliberals often reject mathematics, criticize (neo)classical economics and rationalism and see primary problems not in the economy but in its “frameworks” to be established: state, jurisprudence, culture, morality, mentality or religion.

The aim of this lecture is to present this less visible, but not less significant, romantic side of neoliberalism. Instead of “Calvinism” we find a complex relationship with religion, instead of liberal modernism we find ​​bounded rationality, and instead of supply and demand we find political strategy of balancing rational and non-rational, seen as a precondition of capitalism.

Goran Kauzlarić is a researcher in fields of social theory, cultural and religious studies, and history of contemporary economic and political ideas. He earned his PhD in 2021, at the Faculty of Political Sciences (University of Belgrade). His research concerns intellectual and cultural histories of neoliberalism, counterculture, western esotericism and contemporary (New Age) spirituality. Starting from these fields and related problems of social and political epistemology, and in connection with transformations of capitalism since inter- and post-war periods, he develops a new critical approach to political theology of contemporary culture.

He has published a number of papers in the field of cultural studies and critical theory. In Serbia, he collaborated with organizations such as SANU, BELEF, SKC, FMK, REX. He took part in international scientific gatherings such as Reflections on Capitalism, at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT); The New Subjectivities of Global Capitalism, at the University Babeș Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca; or Cultural Studies: Voices from the Margins, at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade.