It is unnerving to realize we live in an era when everyone seems to be relieved that the COVID-19 pandemic is done and dusted when, in fact, all that is really over are the concerted public health measures to control its spread and propagation. “Wishing makes it so” is hardly a sound policy upon which to build political movements, yet that threatens to be the default stance toward most of the current crises we face, be it global warming, loss of biodiversity, Trumpism, economic inequality, the pandemic, or even the war in Ukraine.

One instance of such “termination fascination” that seems glaringly apparent on the Left is the widespread conviction that somehow the era of neoliberalism is likewise past, or at least on its way out. One can’t help but suspect that this particular hankering for a terminus is a consequence of feelings of helplessness combined with the tiresome refrain that neoliberalism can’t be satisfactorily defined. To clarify the debate, we first need to discuss the different ways in which people on the Left have used the term “neoliberal.”